No safety in skateboarding

[grey12]

I was baffled by the lack of safety in the olympic skateboarding

I was reading and only under-18s are required to even wear a helmet. The other competitors only wear caps. The helmets I saw were totally loose. No to even mention knee pads.....

Imagine if the winter olympics did this for the snowboard events?!!

In my mind, if the skateboarders campaigned for olympic recognition, they should be taking the sport waaaaay more seriously!! And showing good safety precautions to the next generation of olympic skateboarding athletes. Or am I completely off my meds?! Or maybe getting too old?....

DS, a skater, tells me that nowadays skaters can have wearable airbags round their necks, rather than helmets.
He also says that knee injuries are more likely with ramps than street skating.

I went past a skateboard park locally today and noted I couldn't watch them all without helmets. Seems to be a cultural thing.

I was surprised to see no protection on most of the skaters too. And I really didn’t see anything more special than the teens at our local skate park could pull off. I’m definitely no expert, but at Olympic level I’d expect skaters who could stay on their boards and land the tricks more than 50% of the time!

I thought the same about helmets etc I enjoyed watching it though.

@Bitofachinwag

It's the same situation in figure skating. They should also be wearing helmets really.

What?! No way. You try landing a triple axel with a helmet strapped to your head 😂 ..that's akin to telling the gymnasts they need helmets on too. If anything maybe the gymnasts need them more, at least we're not tumbling upside down and twisting in multiple directions (which is admirable and a skill)

Head injuries in figure skating aren't that common, you are taught how to fall.

Skateboarders are just flinging themselves down ramps on a wheeled "vehicle", when something that isn't your own feet is your main method of speed wear a helmet.

Figure skaters are quite able of controlling the speed they are going at because they are using their own feet 🤦🏻‍♀️

I did think that it would be good for the young kids getting sponsorship from clothing brands etc as it's a trendy sport

I think that do, it's just that sponsorship be invisible at the Olympics, and any branding minimised. You can recognise logos, especially on footwear which is not usually bespoke, but that's about it. Uniform is usually made specially for the whole national contingent (even 'non uniform' is going to be in national colours) so won't show brand

@BikeRunSki
I literally said the same. It didnt look any better than the kids at the south bank. And I was surprised (considering the frequency they fell off) that they didnt have any safety gear in some cases. The bmx riding was much more impressive.

I'm still a bit that skateboarding is an Olympic sport and netball isnt...

@Fizbosshoes, my sister’s secondary school boyfriend could olly a bin, kick the board up and slide down the handrails along the steps. How could she resist?

I had a look at some competitions on YouTube and I think the Park variant doesn't have as much falling off.

I think it's partly to do with the scoring though, especially for the best trick bit — some of the scores aren't counted, so you go for the most difficult things you can do, because you only have to get it right once to get a lot of points for it.