Is anyone interested in Olympic skateboarding talks? I will be covering that here so if anyone wants to chime in with predictions beforehand, let's do it! Some huge names are gonna show off their skills, but I can't really think of any situation where the US will not dominate.
Four medal events will be held:
Women & Men
Park
Street
to keep this skateboarding thread alive, here is the ruleset.
• Street
This competition is held on a straight ‘street-like’ course featuring stairs, handrails, curbs, benches, walls and slopes. Each skateboarder performs individually and uses each section to demonstrate a range of skills, or ‘tricks’. Judging takes into account factors such as the degree of difficulty of the tricks, height, speed, originality, execution and the composition of moves, in order to award an overall mark.
Skateboarders often ‘slide’ the wooden deck of their skateboards and ‘grind’ the metal trucks (components which connect the wheels and bearings to the deck of the skateboard) directly along the course's curbs and handrails.
When riding along the course and in order to get their skateboards on top of or over the rails and curbs, competitors often perform an ‘ollie’, a trick whereby the rider and board leap into the air without the use of the rider's hands. Skilled skateboarders make this difficult trick appear easy.
The side-on position taken by riders of surfboards and skateboards is known as their ‘stance’. A position with the left leg facing the direction in which the skateboarder wishes to move is known as ‘regular stance’, while some prefer to position their right leg facing the direction in which they wish to move, which is known as ‘goofy foot’. A skateboarder's usual stance is called their ‘main stance’; when changing the position of the front leg during competition, this is known as ‘switch stance’. The marks awarded for tricks performed with the main stance differ from those performed with switch stance, as the degree of difficulty is increased with the latter.
A common trick for skateboarders is to ollie and then flip the deck of the skateboard in various ways under their feet, miraculously bringing the board back to their feet before landing. An added variation to flipping the board is to also rotate the body at the same time. When performed well, after the board is flipped, the skateboarder can make it appear as if the board reattaches to the feet by magnet. Parallel, length-wise and other dynamic, multi-dimensional flips all require a high level of technique.
• Park
Park competitions take place on a hollowed-out course featuring a series of complicated curves — some resembling large dishes and dome-shaped bowls. From the bottom of the cavity, the curved surfaces rise steeply, with the upper part of the incline either vertical or almost vertical. Among the attractions of park competitions are the immense heights achieved by climbing the curves at speed and performing amazing mid-air tricks.
The variety of tricks available to a skateboarder increases with the height gained launching out of the park’s curves. The degree of difficulty can depend on whether the deck of the skateboard is grabbed with a hand when performing mid-air tricks, which part of the deck is grabbed, which hand is used to grab the deck and the posture of the rider while grabbing the deck.
Difficulty and originality also increase if the deck is rotated in mid-air, flipped or if the competitor is able to rotate their body while in mid-air. Other tricks include variations of balancing (stalls), grinds and slide tricks on the ‘lip’ of the ramp.
