There is no question of imitating the rapid passage of karate, sent back after the Tokyo Olympics to the oblivion of the Olympics: surfing, skateboarding and climbing have just discovered the Games that they are already planning towards those in Paris. And they have the blessing of the IOC, whose boss Thomas Bach praised last Friday these sports “of the future”, allowing “to go where people are, in urban centers”, while rejuvenating the audience of the Olympics. .
Surf: from choppy water to typhoon
From the Olympic debut of surfing in Ichinomaya, in men’s and women’s shortboard, we not only remember the consecration of the American Carissa Moore and the Brazilian Italo Ferreira, already overwhelmed with success in the professional world. By managing to agree to favor a natural site, magnified by the powerful and aerial figures of the 40 competitors, the surf authorities have also made this event one of the showcases of the host country. Where most of the disciplines take place in sublime but standardized enclosures, surfing offered a condensed version of the Japanese coast, passing in a few days from a calm sea to the swell raised by a tropical storm. And Paris 2024 will take Olympic surfing to another dimension: the event will launch its boards on one of the most beautiful waves in the world, Teahupo’o, in Tahiti.
Skateboarding: teens in power
If skateboarding and its teens have breathed fresh air in Tokyo and boosted television audiences, especially in Brazil, the competition left a mixed impression. Many crashes – especially in the street event -, lack of pace, disappointing superstars like Nyjah Huston and Leticia Bufoni, a slightly dull gray concrete bowl: the format and its results were not fully convinced. Unlike climbers, happy and intimidated to join in the Olympic celebration, many skateboarders, especially younger ones, repeated that they came to have fun with friends and often downplayed the importance of the Games. Still, this arrival at the Olympics aroused a lot of enthusiasm, especially among the Japanese (5 medals) and the Brazilians (3 medals), whose journalists came in large numbers to the Ariake site. In Brazil, which has 8.5 million skaters, the street event achieved the fifth best audience in the first week, thanks in particular to “the little fairy” Rayssa Leal, in silver at 13, increased from 600,000 subscribers on Instagram at 6.6 million. Most of the competitors hope that the Olympic advent of skateboarding will spark vocations. “I hope I will inspire a few girls,” said Briton Sky Brown, 13 and bronze medalist in the park. The young Frenchwoman Madeleine Larcheron, 15, is waiting for the construction of “bigger structures” and promises to “make things happen”.
Climbing: successful big gap
The culmination of decades of evolution, from the rocks of Fontainebleau to the city walls, the arrival of climbing at the Olympic Games was accompanied by a challenge: to condense the diversity of practices into a single event. On the show side, the “combination” of speed, bouldering and difficulty has kept its promises, unfolding a rich palette of gestures and confronting the silversmiths of the cliffs and acrobats of resin. “When we got there, we entered another world. Now, we will continue to put on a show, to show that our sport is insane and that it remains (at the Olympics) for 50 years, 100 years, ”enthusiastic Frenchman Mickaël Mawem (ranked 5th), also hoping that the young climbers “live” on it more easily than his generation. But when it came time to decide between sprinters, voltigeurs and technicians, the method of calculation retained – unmatched at the Games – had turned illegible, upsetting the men’s standings until the last second. However, he was living his last hours: in Paris, climbing will have two events, speed on the one hand and a combined block-difficulty on the other.
Coralie FEBVRE
and Julie DEMARCY / AFP
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There is no question of imitating the rapid passage of karate, sent back after the Tokyo Olympics to the oblivion of the Olympics: surfing, skateboarding and climbing have just discovered the Games that they are already planning towards those in Paris. And they have the blessing of the IOC, whose boss Thomas Bach praised these sports “of the future” last Friday, allowing …
