| Olympic wave carries wakeboarding and skateboarding |
| Friday, 03 August 2012 15:25 |
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Skateboarding and wakeboarding have strong chances of being included in the 2020 Olympic Games.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) wants new sports and new audiences in the Olympic movement. In the history of the Olympiads, only two board sports have delivered medals: snowboarding and windsurfing. While kiteboarding seems to be making a debut in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games, surfing is still struggling to prove how popular it can be, in terms of global audience. Unexpectedly, skateboarding has been boosted by cycling's world governing body - UCI - to be included in the Olympics. What do skateboarders and cyclists have in common? Apparently, only wheels. But there's more. UCI wants to show its commitment to help modernizing the Olympic Games and skaters are cool and radical. "I've heard talk about 2016 in Brazil maybe getting skateboarding. For me that would be like the ultimate to compete Winter and Summer," Shaun White told Reuters. "The only thing I could relate it to would be the Summer and Winter X-Games. I compete in both of those and have medals in both". "At the time, I thought it was the biggest thing that could ever happen until I won the Olympics and then it changed the game." Wakeboarding has been growing very fast. The water board sport evolved and can now be seen towed behind a motorboat or in a cable park system. Multinational brands have been steadily supporting wakeboarders and the X-Games were a major success for the sport. With a complete set of high-flying tricks and moves, wakeboarding may see the light of the Olympic day, in a near future. IOC will select one in eight bidding sports for the 2020 Olympic Games. Two of them are board sports. So, in the era of artificial waves and surf pools, where's olympic surfing heading to and what's hot in modern wakeboarding and skateboarding? Maybe these videos from the X-Games can clear things up: |
