Riding the Wave: Skateboarding's Olympic Boom in Spain

Skateboarding is gaining followers in Spain as a new Olympic sport, with hundreds of wide-eyed enthusiasts flocking to training grounds in the hope of becoming professional athletes.

Following its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, skateboarding will appear again in Paris later this month, with competitors set to take over the iconic Place de la Concorde. In Spain, federation memberships have surged from just 72 in 2016 to over 1,100 this year.

Barcelona is often called the Mecca of skateboarding in Europe, with notable popularity at the Marbella skatepark's waveramps and bowls, where skate camps like Damien Chiche's sell out every summer. 'Since 2019, all the media coverage around the Olympics has changed skateboarding, causing a new surge, where every kid wants, thinks, dreams, and believes they can make it in skateboarding,' said Chiche, a 12-year skating instructor.

Malika Le Roy watched her daughter Rosie learn tricks at Chiche's school, motivated by British teen Olympic skater Sky Brown. Meanwhile, ten-year-old Pablo Maestro Moral dreams of becoming a pro skater, saying, 'It would be great to make it to the Olympics.' Old-school street skateboarders in Barcelona's MACBA square, though gear-free, support the sport’s Olympic popularity.

'It's not you who grasps skateboarding, it’s skateboarding that grasps you... If you want to make it an Olympic sport and try to make it there, good for you. But it's not gonna change the spirit of skating much,' said Uruguayan skater Facundo Porro.

(With inputs from agencies.)