Skateboarding
New and cool in the 2020 Olympics.
A skateboard is a short, narrow board with two small wheels attached to the bottom of either end. Skateboarders ride on this apparatus to perform tricks including jumps (ollies), flips and mid-air spins. The sport of skateboarding will make its Olympic debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games.
There are various theories about the origins of skateboarding, but it is generally held that the sport began in the 1940s on the west coast of the USA when metal wheels were attached to a narrow wooden board.
In the 1950s, clay composite replaced metal as the material of choice for the wheels, and the first ‘Sidewalk Surfboard’ became commercially available, which in turn developed into the skateboard that we know today.
The sport was a big hit with the younger generation and with the advent of the urethane wheel in the 1970s, grew in global popularity. Since the 1980s, skateboarding has been an essential part of street culture.
While skateboarding is mostly a recreational sport, judging it in an olympic setting involves many different factors.
