Skateboarding made its first appearance in the Olympics this year in Tokyo. This was a perfect opportunity for the sport to gain some well-deserved recognition among the general public.
Park and street were the two categories of the sport added to the international competition.
With the average age of female competitors being around 14 and the average age of male skateboarders being under 23, the Olympic committee has made a commendable effort to encourage more enthusiasm from younger viewers.
Skateboarding has been brought in alongside other urban sports such as surfing and karate.
The University of Sheffield Skateboarding society stated that they were ‘super hyped’ to see more people watching the sport. 
With the sport often being male-dominated, the society found it extremely encouraging to see female role models such as Britain’s youngest ever Olympian Sky Brown. Sky had a tremendous run in Tokyo winning a bronze medal in the women’s park final.
However, they felt that creativity and improving as a community was more important in skateboarding, rather than points on a scoreboard and hoped that the way the sport was judged in the Olympics doesn’t discourage people from getting involved themselves.
Despite this, the publicity that comes with being a part of the Olympics will no doubt help the sport to reach out to people who are interested in trying something new.
Skateboarding has received £1,350,000 in funding to prepare for the next Olympics in Paris.
The number of sports receiving funding for the Olympics has been stretched from 32 to 43 sports with some sports such as Rowing and Swimming seeing a reduction.
Although Karate will not be seen in the Paris Olympics in 2024, Skateboarding has been provisionally approved to make its second appearance as an event.
The skateboarding community will be hoping that this funding will help to maintain the momentum from the success seen in this year’s Olympics. We may even see more British skateboarders on our screen join Sky Brown amongst the medal-winning athletes.
