Skateboarding

[CM-BlueButterfly]

Skateboarding: Jul 27 & 28, Aug 6 & 7

[shoregirl]

I was watching the Women's street and the age range was 12-19 in the final. 12 years old and in the Olympics is crazy. They were all very impressive but I'm surprised there's no age limit like in Gymnastics.  Also I'm surprised that wearing helmets are not a requirement.

[StatisticalOutlier]

6 hours ago, shoregirl said:

Also I'm surprised that wearing helmets are not a requirement.

And that wearing headphones is allowed. 

[Bastet]

8 hours ago, shoregirl said:

Also I'm surprised that wearing helmets are not a requirement.

I know absolutely nothing about skateboarding (I rode one as a kid, but didn't do any tricks), so I only watched a little bit, but that jumped out at me, too.

[StatisticalOutlier]

8 hours ago, Bastet said:

I know absolutely nothing about skateboarding (I rode one as a kid, but didn't do any tricks), so I only watched a little bit, but that jumped out at me, too.

I found a Reddit thread discussing this.  One of the points made is that none of the stars of the sport would participate if they had to wear helmets, which as an oldster seems absolutely ridiculous to me.  Tony Hawk wears a helmet, right?

Well...Tony Hawk is a vert skater, and the Olympic events aren't that high-flying type of skating.  (Plus Tony Hawk is old so who cares what he does, and I'll point out that I was watching a documentary about Hawk recently and he was wearing a helmet that was so loosely cinched (or maybe not cinched at all) that it fell off when he crashed and he got very seriously injured.)

I also ran across a story about a street skateboarder who is known for wearing a helmet all the time, and there was going to be a competition where all participants would be required to wear a helmet and it was thought he might have an advantage because he's used to having the helmet on his head.  Interesting.  Imagine if gymnasts were suddenly required to wear a helmet after a lifetime of not--that would take some very serious adjusting.

Olympic skaters under a certain age are required to wear a helmet, so there's that.  But the culture of street skating is definitely anti-helmet, and apparently concussion injuries aren't all that common because they know how to fall and aren't falling from great distances.  Yeah, I know, you can hit your head riding a bike slowly and hitting a piece of gravel.  You can also get a concussion walking on a path and tripping, and we'd all be better protected if we wore helmets while riding in cars.  And I just read in the gymnastics thread that a French gymnast may have suffered a concussion, and that the rest of the team saw it happen (perhaps hence the meltdown?).

Suffice to say the whole issue is nuanced. 

No doubt the optics would be better if all skateboard participants were wearing helmets.  And it bristles that throwing optics out the window is necessary otherwise the big names won't show up.  I, of course, think, "Our Olympics, our rules."  But then I realize that the optics are really for the children watching, so I'm a little bit cheered that for once, "Think of the children" isn't ruling the day.

Now, headphones?  GMAFB.

[surfgirl]

To me this also is. Ot Olympics worthy, it's a hobby.