Downhill Skateboarding in the Olympics? Why not?

**wilder** · 03-25-2007 12:36 PM

Why or why not? Seems like there is enough countries to participate, if filmed right and on the right course makes an excellent spectator sport, etc.......

What are some reasons that this could not happen? Discuss........

**bucksaw87** · 03-25-2007 12:58 PM

hell, they got downhill skateboarding and street luge on tv...i think on the gravity games (not sure on that though). but yeah, get an international standard on scoring, timing, all that; a sheet of technical specs for the types of boards that are allowed...it's definitely possible, and it would definitely bring dh/longboarding into the mainstream which would help the sport out A LOT...oddly enough, i have been thinking about this topic for a few weeks now

**S.A.M.** · 03-25-2007 01:30 PM

Well most of the top riders that I know would not pass the drug tests so it would not be the best competition. But it would be cool.

**Directive0** · 03-25-2007 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by S.A.M.

Well most of the top riders that I know would not pass the drug tests so it would not be the best competition.

thats hilarious.

**Parallel Man** · 03-25-2007 01:59 PM

The Olympics today have become such a corporate, politicized and scandal-ridden fiasco that I really couldn't care less if there's skateboarding.

Lots of slalomers are always talking about how getting the Olympics to recognize the sport would be such an accomplishment.

HAH.

All it takes is for Coca-Cola or some multi-billion dollar bank to announce they support slalom and the Olympics would slobber like an old hound dog to please its corporate masters.

At one time (like 80 years ago) I do believe there was an olympic ideal. The games took at hit when Adolph Hitler decided to make it a propoganda event. the games, though, came back strong in the '50s and really were all about amateur athletic excellence.

Starting with Mexico City, though, the games started going downhill and the plunge is still strong. The Cold War, selling out (re: Peter Ueberroth), corporate interference (the 100th Anniversary games In Coca-cola's home town instead of Athens where they belonged) and now professionalism have made the Olympics just another opportunity to sell tires and shaving cream.

Here's a way to think about skateboarding in the Olympics.

You decide to compete. You go through the preliminaries and the trials and get a spot on the team.

BUT,

The wheels, trucks, bearings and deck that got you to the show aren't "officially recognized" by some sanctioning commitee. So in order to skate at the Olympics you ride somebody else's board, somebody else's wheels and somebody else's truck.

And this is supposed to be for the glory of your native land?

Baloney.

Give me a fun weekend of grassroots racing over some corporate bean counter telling me how to skate so more soda and beer get sold to some couch potato slob.

**karrot** · 03-25-2007 02:21 PM

^^
so if dh was an olymic sport, you would be able to ride your own board competeing?

**skategeezer** · 03-25-2007 02:27 PM

The Olympics today have become such a corporate, politicized and scandal-ridden fiasco that I really couldn't care less if there's skateboarding.

I totally agree with this statement.

The Olympic ideal is about how much can be raised in tv rights..and how much the athletes can be exploited.

I am not interested in the olympics hijacking skateboarding....vert, downhill or slalom

I know this will piss some folks off...but remember what happened to snowboarding once the Olympics got their hands on it.

UGH!

**mexifly** · 03-25-2007 02:33 PM

It will never happen.

The current format of both slalom and downhill are not very spectator friendly, Dh and luge lost thier spots at both the Gravity and X-games. the TV viewers are bored with the traditional racing format. Use the last Olympics as an example, snowboard racing (gates) televised 5 runs total and the Boardercross they showed mens and womans Quarter, semi's and final heats. People want to see carnage. If skateboarding were to change its format of racing the Olympica and arenas are not out of the question.

In my opinion the future of televised skateboarding is in races like the Burning Wheels Tour in Europe. From what little I have seen this is basically a boardercross track (with whoops, airs, banks and the like). This offers the carnage, the excitement and the ease of the crowd to follow what is going on (the winner is the first person across the line not who finished first minus who knocked down the most cones). This type of racing then lends itself to taking the track on the road and setting up in any city and any arena. This could even lead to actual professional skateboard racers (sorta like what the BLR guys are trying to do).

**Lee W** · 03-25-2007 02:35 PM

What happened to snowboarding once the Olympics got their hands on it? All they took was GS (I think...), boardercross, and halfpipe...all of which are styles that the majority of snowboarders don't do seriously/exclusively.

Shaun White won, as he did all the other events he entered that year. The downside of the event was how they blamed that poor girl for falling on the last kicker of the boardercross. Grabs stabilize you in the air, they don't throw you off balance.

**bucksaw87** · 03-25-2007 02:49 PM

yeah well, modern society basically requires all sports to be corporate sellouts...you can't watch a sporting event on tv without seeing tons of the "official ___ of *insert sport here*"
hell, you can't go to a live sporting event without seeing corporate logos splashed everywhere.

but, dh racing hasn't got the mainstream exposure like snowboarding did before snowboarding joined the olympics. if dh racing did join the olympics, it would be a great publicity booster for dh because the world hasn't already been exposed to tons of x-games coverage, piles of videogames, and dh-branded clothing

**Parallel Man** · 03-25-2007 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by skategeezer

The Olympics today have become such a corporate, politicized and scandal-ridden fiasco that I really couldn't care less if there's skateboarding.

I totally agree with this statement

Agreeing with me is a sure way to the path of enlightenment.

(No, that's not a Chuck Norris OR a Steven Seagal quote.)

**Anton Milioti** · 03-25-2007 03:21 PM

maybe im just stupid, but when i was watching my copy of Evolutions 2, the timeship part came on. and one of the scenes was a DH race and it had the 5 rings from the olympics all over the place.

basically, wasn't DH in the olympics at some point?

**HerBDerb** · 03-25-2007 03:40 PM

Originally Posted by ton

wasn't DH in the olympics at some point?

No .

**Astronomical** · 03-25-2007 03:45 PM

Drug testing would destroy it. I'd like Standup DH to be back in the X-Games though, is streetluge even still on the X-Games? Last I've seen it was just (I only saw) Moto-X and BMX and Shortboard.

**SteveC** · 03-25-2007 04:02 PM

"the Olympics need skateboarding more than skateboarding needs the Olympics"

TonyHawk...

**SpeedFiend** · 03-25-2007 04:44 PM

snowboarding is in there.

Have someone like Yvon Labrathe follow on inline skates and broadcast that view and people would watch. As for spectators I dont understand why DH is boring. I have watched Luge and thats exciting. People like seeing crashes and DH has plenty of those also. Most countries that host have good enough hills.

I have wondered about this for awhile. Good thread.

**MrCokesNSmokes** · 03-25-2007 07:59 PM

No. The Olympics are stupid. Screw them.

**Colton** · 03-25-2007 08:12 PM

because then everyone would want to do it.

**Justin Metcalf** · 03-25-2007 09:18 PM

Well I think one of the real issues of having DH in the Olympics is that it would place some serious demands on cities bidding for the right to hold them. You would need a run that would be of olympic caliber and there are only so many of those in the world...and most of them aren't near major cities. I just don't think its plausible no matter how in favor I am of it.

In terms of it being exciting...realize that the ENTIRE marathon races are broadcast and the courses lined from begining to end with spectators. If a 26.2mile foot race has that big a following I'm sure that DH would have no problem gaining spectators.

However...I am completely against DH in the X-games. I feel like the X-games are exclusively a corporate venture and I don't think DH would have anything to gain from them. The Olympics still hold some level of prestige and dignity...although I think the last true display of Olympic glory (in terms of a national thing) was the 1980 Winter games.

If the issue of an Olympic caliber hill was resolved...I would be in favor of DH and slalom in the Olympics...but I don't think that this is something that is anywhere in the near future.

**Ky Boy** · 03-25-2007 09:28 PM

It's funny to me that a lot of people that I encounter while skating already think that speedboarding and streetluge are in the Olympics. Somehow we're already getting our Olympic coverage lol

However, dh is a boring event to watch, It takes forever to get peeps up and down the hill (though some orgs are better than others) and when the action comes through it's for a very short while and you never recieve word on who won. But hey if they got mother####in waterpolo or curling in the olympics than peeps will watch anything.