Skateboarding, from popular neighbourhoods to Santiago 2023

We can see it every day, in skate parks and as a transportation device on the streets. Skateboarding is a sport that made its debut in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and will also be a discipline in Santiago 2023. Let’s get to know a bit more about it and enjoy it like an expert in the Pan American Games.  

The device needed to compete is a board, that has two axes made from a metal allow and four rubber wheels.  Skaters ride it to perform a series of tricks that include jumps (ollies), spins and air turns.  

In Santiago 2023 we will be able to see two types of competition:  

Street
This category is developed in a straight route that mimics the street, it will probably be very familiar to you.  With stairs, railings, edges, park benches, walls and hills, like an urban track.
Each skater competes individually and uses each section to show a series of skills and tricks.  The scoring they receive considers factors such as the difficulty degree of the tricks, height, speed, originality, execution, and movement composition to give them a global score.


Park
The park competition has its roots in the drained pools that skaters used in Venice Beach (LA, USA) to practice this sport.
The park competitions take place in a track with different levels and a series of complicated turns, some of them similar to large half pipe structures.
Starting form the bottom of the pipe, curved surfaces elevate with big slopes, with their upper parts completely vertical or almost vertical.
Between the attractions we can find in the park competitions are the great heights that skaters reach going up the curves at a great speed and performing incredible air tricks.

Keep an eye to: Brazil and skate
In Tokyo 2020, Brazil won three medals in this sport, with Rayssa Leal, 13, who won the silver medal in Street, accomplishing a huge milestone in her category; while Kelvin Hoefler won the silver medal in the men’s street. In Park, Brazil also reached the podium with Pedro Barros, one of the legends of Brazilian skateboarding, with a silver medal.  

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