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Yuto Horigome is skateboarding's first ever Olympic gold medalist
Finally, after 12 months of delay, the Tokyo Games are here and Yuto Horigome is skateboarding's first ever Olympic gold medalist.
It was always going to happen. I'm surprised it took this long to be honest given how boring a lot of other Olympic sports are. I mean, do you want to watch a 13 year old girl gap out to front crook on a 12 stair handrail, or do you want to watch some Allegra dance around on a horse? Simple equation really.
The arguments for and against skating being in the Olympics are myriad. Depending on your side of the fence it either represents the ultimate coming-of-age of a culture, or it represents the neutering of what was once an anti-establishment sub culture. I kind of agree with both sides if I'm honest. Uniforms, IOC officials in blazers (not the Swoosh kind) pretending to give a shit and all the other sports bullshit is, very obviously, anathema to the traditions of skateboard culture. I agree with all I've just typed but that didn't stop me sitting up till 4am two nights in a row to watch it and talk real-time shit on the UK Skate forum with other portly dads.
Honestly, it was entertaining to watch. I get that a lot of people feel as though it's somehow soiled the spiritual pants of skateboarding but, in a world where people happily cover themselves in logos for Monster, knife companies and Christ knows what else - does it really matter?
As I write this we've only had the street section of Olympic skateboarding with Park to follow next week.
The format was basically Street League and, as with SLS, it devolved in a handrail fest pretty quickly.
Nonetheless, it was bloody exciting to watch despite the inherent tedium of the SLS format, well unless you're the Mayor of Greater Manchester that is - Andy Burnham you made yourself look like a out of touch bellend mate.
If you missed it, you can peep highlights of Men's street below in YouTube format, plus a link to the full BBC broadcast of the entire Men's Street here (complete with Marc Churchill on the mic)
Along with the fact that Yuto Horigome is skateboarding's first ever Olympic gold medalist, is another moment of glory for the host nation with a gold medal for Japan in Women's street too. A double whammy for glorious Nippon made even crazier by the fact that the winner, Momiji Nishiya at 13 years old is one of the youngest Olympic gold medalists of all time. Pretty fucking cool eh?
Below there's a video with a bit of back story on Momiji Nishiya and to watch the whole thing - hit up the BBC iPlayer here to peep the entire contest.
It's highly likely that a lot of you won't give a toss about the Olympics and that's fine but believe me when I say this - a 13 year old girl just repeatedly back smithed a twelve stair handrail in front of millions of people. I'm struggling to think of many ways in which that is not a good thing.