Skateboarding 2020 Dicussion Thread

[heywoodu 16,182]

52 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

How many 11 year old football players suffer major injuries that put them out of the sport? How many kids who play American Football have already had more than one concussion by age 11? Kids can get killed skiing at age 11. Skiers can and have been killed training for the Olympics. One marathoner died in the middle the 1912 Olympic Marathon. Italy pushes many girls to be elite gymnasts starting earlier than age 11. People seem to die quite often in Dakar Rally, and everyone seems to be okay with that. 
 

I’m not saying their isn’t a problem here. I’m just saying that you’re attempting make case that a sport is dangerous, while basically over looking basic dangers of every other sport on the Olympic program. 

For example people who start in Dakar or Isle of Man and so on are old enough to make their own decisions and weigh the pros and cons of their participation. You just can't expect an 11 year old kid to have that same kind of level especially in sports that are inherently more dangerous than for example football, tennis or athletics.

[dcro 10,210]

This + imagine how much control over their lives 11-year olds have in more oppressive countries.

[Dunadan 1,103]

1 hour ago, Olympian1010 said:

How many 11 year old football players suffer major injuries that put them out of the sport? How many kids who play American Football have already had more than one concussion by age 11? Kids can get killed skiing at age 11. Skiers can and have been killed training for the Olympics. One marathoner died in the middle the 1912 Olympic Marathon. Italy pushes many girls to be elite gymnasts starting earlier than age 11. People seem to die quite often in Dakar Rally, and everyone seems to be okay with that. 

In none of these sports 11 yo children are training like seniors. Gymnasts might be training hard for their age but they are still 5 years away from being eligible to compete and the difficulties that they train are much lower than any elite senior gymnast. The minimum age requirements work well, it would not make sense to teach children dangerous skills years in advance.

 

I don't even get why the IOC did not push for an age limit to have at least only teenagers and adults competing- from a public relation point of view if an accident like this happened at the Olympics they'd be accused to be child exploiters and murderers.

[Olympian1010 8,276]

9 hours ago, heywoodu said:

For example people who start in Dakar or Isle of Man and so on are old enough to make their own decisions and weigh the pros and cons of their participation. You just can't expect an 11 year old kid to have that same kind of level especially in sports that are inherently more dangerous than for example football, tennis or athletics.

I wouldn’t say that Skateboarding is more dangerous than any of those though. 

[Olympian1010 8,276]

8 hours ago, Dunadan said:

In none of these sports 11 yo children are training like seniors. Gymnasts might be training hard for their age but they are still 5 years away from being eligible to compete and the difficulties that they train are much lower than any elite senior gymnast. The minimum age requirements work well, it would not make sense to teach children dangerous skills years in advance.

 

I don't even get why the IOC did not push for an age limit to have at least only teenagers and adults competing- from a public relation point of view if an accident like this happened at the Olympics they'd be accused to be child exploiters and murderers.

So do the 13 year old divers and figure skaters we see just magically get good at 13 then? No, they’d be been training like an elite athlete for years. Same goes for all the teenage gymnasts we see at every Olympic Games. Skateboarding also doesn’t require ultra-physical training. It’s more about building up skill, and being to lace together multiple skills over a given time period. 
 

Also, if we’re talking about risk, I think it’s important to highlight the following. There is an inherent risk to sport. Sports ask athletes to push their bodies and minds to the extremes. If we reacted to every accident the way you have reacted to this one, there wouldn’t be a lot of sport left. 
 

One of the best things about Surfing, Skateboarding, etc. is that they are counter culture sports. They don’t have all these arbitrary rules, which in some cases, ruin sport in my opinion. They aren’t sports that who can participate. They encourage athletes of all abilities to come together at the same venues and help each other out. There is a ton of support for younger skaters, that comes directly from their older peers. 
 

I understand why minimum age requirements are important in other sports, but Skateboarding has a different culture. We would be taking away some of that culture to institute those rules.