Skateboarding at the 2020 Summer Olympics

The first skateboards were created in the late 1940s but the sport lacked a strong competitive scene until the 1970s, when the first unofficial World Championships took place. From then on, the sport’s popularity waxed and waned until the start of the 21st century.

From 2013 the IOC invited sports who were “relevant to the younger generation” to apply for places at forthcoming Olympic Games without gaining a permanent place on the schedule. Skateboarding overcame the problems of not having a strong global governing body by aligning itself with the Fédération Internationale de Roller Sports and forming a new body that governed under the name “World Skate” from 2017 onwards.

The events chosen for the 2020 Games were “Park”, held in a standard skatepark, and “Street”, an event designed to simulate an urban terrain. The events were held at the 7,000 capacity Ariake Urban Sports Park located in the Ariake district of Kōtō, Tokyo. Twenty-five (25) countries were represented with the host country, the USA and Brazil all contributing the maximum 10 representatives. The host nation was most successful with three Olympic titles out of the four contested – Australia won the other gold. Brazil won silver medals and the USA slightly disappointed with only 2 bronze medals.

With medallists aged 16, 13, and 13 respectively, the women’s street contest providing the youngest podium in the entirety of Olympic history, although that was challenged in the women’s park event, in which the medallists were 19, 12, and 13 years-old.