Olympic dreams inspire new wave of young skateboarders in Spain

Skatepark area © Getty Images

Skateboarding is becoming increasingly popular in Spain as a new Olympic sport. Hundreds of enthusiastic skateboarders are taking to the training grounds in the hope of becoming professional athletes.

Following its Olympic debut in Tokyo 2021, skateboarding will return to Paris later this month, with competitors taking to the iconic Place de la Concorde.

In Spain, the number of members of the skateboarding federation has increased this year from just 72 in 2016, the year of the last Olympic Games without the sport, to more than 1,100.

The coastal city of Barcelona is often referred to as the Mecca of skateboarding in Europe. This trend is most visible on the wave ramps and bowls of the Marbella skatepark, where skate camps like Damien Chiche’s are sold out every summer.

“Since 2019, all the media attention for the Olympic Games has changed skateboarding. It has led to a new trend: every child wants, thinks, dreams and believes that he can make it in skateboarding,” said the 44-year-old Frenchman, who has been a skating instructor for 12 years.

Malika Le Roy, 40, watched her daughter Rosie learn tricks at Chiche’s school, along with other children wearing helmets and protective gear.

“She’s five and a half years old and when she saw Sky (Brown, British teenage Olympic skater), that young girl, skating and competing in the Olympics, it gave her a huge boost of motivation,” she said.

Ten-year-old Pablo Maestre-Morant, who fell a few times in the bowl but then got up and continued skating, added: “It’s embarrassing, but yes, it would be great to become a professional skater one day and make it to the Olympics.”

In Barcelona’s marble-paved MACBA square, old-school street skateboarders gather with no protective gear in sight, a contrast to the Olympic discipline. But most are in favor of its Olympic-inspired popularity.

“It’s not you who understands skateboarding, it’s skateboarding that understands you… If you want to make it an Olympic sport and try to make it, good for you. But it won’t change the spirit of skating much,” said 25-year-old Uruguayan skater Facundo Porro.