Skateboarding is often perceived as an activity for rebellious teenagers, but devotees of the sport hope that gold medals by Japanese athletes at the Tokyo Olympics will change that image and lead to the development of more places for skaters to do what they enjoy most.
“I didn’t expect a Japanese to win a gold medal. I think not many people had anticipated it,” 23-year-old skateboarding enthusiast Yuki Shiobara said of Yuto Horigome one day after the skater captured gold in the men’s street competition on Sunday. “In Japan, skateboarding doesn’t have a positive public image. So I think it was a great opportunity for the sport to dispel that image.”
Shiobara was practicing outside the skatepark at Tokyo’s Komazawa Olympic Park on Monday evening alongside Reo Suzuki, 19. Komazawa’s skate park has easy ramps and other features, and the two said they often go there to polish their skills. Unfortunately, the skate park has been shut down since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so Shiobara and Suzuki were actually riding their boards outside of the park, which was surrounded by wired fences.