(Foto: Alexander Hommel, CC BY 2.0)
Die Organisatoren der Olympischen Sommerspiele 2020 in Tokio haben kürzlich erst fünf neue Sportarten für die Aufnahme in ihr Programm empfohlen. Neben dem Baseball/Softball, Karate, Sportklettern und Surfen ist auch angedacht, ab 2020 das Skateboarden olympisch zu machen. Profis wie Tony Hawk und Shaun White haben sich dem gegenüber wohlwollend geäußert, andere Skater sind da nicht so angetan und haben nun eine Petition gestartet, die dafür sorgen soll, dass das Skaten eben nicht olympisch werden soll.
Die Petenten meinen, „Skaten sei kein Sport“, passe nicht zur olympischen Idee und haben offenbar Angst, vereinnahmt zu werden. So kann es gehen.
“We feel Olympic recognition will not due justice to the purity, individuality and uniqueness of skateboarding culture. We feel dedicated viewers of the Olympic games will not be interested in skateboarding. Skateboarding should not be viewed or utilized as a sport or game or used as a marketing tool for the personal gain of organizations. Skateboarding competition as presented to the public eye today is primarily invitational-only television productions for the purpose of attracting high paying corporate sponsors. These programs are very unpopular, poorly attended, and most skateboarders do not watch them because they do not represent what skateboarding is really about.
The typical skateboarder does not have anything in common with an Olympian athlete. Athletes train endlessly, have trainers, coaches, hard schedules to keep, many competitions and a true dedication to their goal of winning a gold metal. Skateboarding does not fit this scenario. The majority of skateboarders do not have a desire to compete against other countries. Skateboarders do not work upward towards a competitive goal of receiving metals. Skateboarding is an individual creative activity and skaters enjoy lesser known, non-televised, informal competitions among their peers with no corporate sponsors for the mere purpose of having fun.”
(via Good)
