A BREAKDOWN OF SKATEBOARDING IN THE OLYMPICS

By now you should all be aware that skateboarding is officially an olympic sport and is destined to be a feature “sport” in the 2020 games in Tokyo, Japan. Most skateboarder know what the olympics are but may not know how they work. And what does being in the Olympics mean for skateboarding? How will the contest play out? Will it be along the lines of Street League? X-Games? Tampa Pro? Or something entirely original all on its own? Regardless for the first time ever skateboarders will not only be competing?for themselves but for something even greater this time around.

Their country! Stakes are higher as the fans behind you are going to be not your usual skateboard enthusiasts but people who normally wouldn?t watch skateboarding or root you on to begin with all for the sake of the country winning some gold and bragging rights. Interestingly enough though there are a few facts which may surprise you about the Olympics that the average person does not know and how it will affect our skateboard competitors, here are 3 of them.

Olympic Skateboarding Facts

1. An athlete who wins Gold in the olympics gets a $25,000 cash prize for gold, $15,000 for silver, and $10,000 for bronze. On the shocking side of things if lets say an American won gold he would have to pay Uncle Sam $10,000.00 in taxes from his winnings which means he leaves only with $15,000 for winning the most coveted medal on earth. Compare this to a first place $100,000 winning of a single Street League! Big difference. Although of course it doesn’t count endorsement money from the exposure from the Olympics, but you get the idea.
2. The country hosting the olympics actually gets to put athletes in any events it wants! So they can literally put an athlete in every sport featured in the olympics regardless if they are truly qualified or not. Quite a perk if you ask me. It puts the odds in their favor a bit having more athletes in more sports. Kind of like buying extra numbers in the lotto.
3. Although there are many countries its common to find numerous athletes from one country in the finals of the same sport. So a specific country has more talented skaters than another there may be a chance they dominate the finals. This of course is limited to how many athletes can even be added to each counties roster which leads me to the next segment of this article.

SPECULATION: ATHLETES FOR TOP SKATEBOARD COUNTRY TEAMS

Just for fun here’s a list of possible athletes a few countries well represented in skateboarding could possibly add to their roster as their ?Skateboard competitors?. This also keeping in mind that you need to add 4 years these athletes lives and hope that they are still in peak shape.

There are so many more countries to obviously list not to mention there has to be a womens event as well and more women are skateboarding than ever so this will open up a lot of opportunity for them in the industry as well. Countries will search the land for talent that might not have been found yet in regards to females in the ?Sport? of skateboarding for the Olympics. What are your dream teams per country? Every athlete will have to be a professional and if they are not then the rule in the olympics of being 16 years and up applies. This would go towards some of those countries who may have difficulty finding an ambassador who is renown in our skateboarding industry. You may end up seeing a number of names and individuals you have never heard of.

Overall this is opportunity for many and despite some not being on board I am backing skateboarding in the Olypmics 100% The entire world unified rooting for something we did for fun that wasn?t taken seriously by society before. Oh how the tables have turned.