Why is snowboarding not an Olympic sport? Three hypotheses – OA Sport

and the Question questionsA true motto that accompanies the athletes’ actions, the efforts of the coaches, and the sacrifices of parents. It always resists, but visibly enlarges every four years: Why is snowboarding not considered an Olympic sport?

A more than legitimate question, first of all For those who experience skiing first hand, and we were struck by the fact that during the five-circuit review, many sports were considered “secondary” and possibly “less” exciting. The feeling of alienation was then, in Tokyo 2020 Bigger for figure skating fans, is the first renewable discipline in Olympic history which, in the intentions of the competent bodies, will be able to act as a door-opener for many other World Skate subsidiaries.

Now that it’s a file The Games of the XXXII Olympiad are over, we attempt to identify three obvious but clearly hypothetical reasons for answering the so-called “question of questions”, excluding nonetheless sports politics, which is an incredibly relevant factor in such cases.

1. Absence of superpowers

Let’s take a look at the Tokyo 2020 medal table. In the first place there United States of America (113 medals), then follow it China (88), Japan (58), Great Britain (65) Republic of China and Russia (46). Five countries, at the moment, in figure skating are either really not as competitive as the United States (which lost the luster of the past for nearly a decade) and Great Britain or, worse, practically absent. To these should be added other important countries, for example, Canada, where only snowboarding is practiced, or Australia. Thinking of being able to participate in games with the absence of relevant skaters from at least part of the countries mentioned today seems really improbable. After all, by scanning the medal table in detail The sport that debuted in Tokyo, podium presences the US (skateboard, karate, climbing, surf), Japan (skateboard, karate, climbing, surf), China (karate) and the UK (skateboard). looks then First of all, it is necessary to expand the scope of the discipline at the geographical level.

2. Excessive Italian superiority

the Our backbone. Italy in figure skating is very strong, and at the moment remains the best in the world; So it is really a shame not to be able to participate in the games because the medal table will be positively affected by the contribution of the Azure skiers. Unfortunately, however, the extreme Italian supremacy in the international sphere It was and always will be a huge problem. Let’s do a quick calculation keeping in mind, for convenience, just Three “historical” disciplines (free, artistic and dance pairs, thus avoiding forced pairs, dance solo, groups and inline), taking as a reference point What happened in the last World Cup?, those of Barcelona 2019. We won two medals (a gold by Rebecca Tarlazi, silver by Letizia Ghiroldi), in the men’s singles (Luca Lucaroni gold), three in technical pairs (a gold by Tarlazzi Lucarone, a silver by Esposito Rossi, and a bronze by Colucci Garelli) and finally, two in Dance (gold by Rimondini Morandin, bronze by Silvia Stebel and Andrea Bassi). It’s a total of eight medals, Of which Four of the finest minerals. Excellent number but not in the Olympic key: because other nationalitiesI have to “give” Italy a lot of medals (some of which are certain at first) without the little chance To fight for at least a luxury spot on the podium? Obviously, the problem can also spread to two other countries on the rise, namely Spain (free) and Portugal (Dance). Despite the growth of Germany and the good level of some South American countries (including Brazil and Argentina), the number of medals The potential Olympics will still be very unbalanced Without enough competition.

3. Not monolithic scenes

This is the point In some ways less critical of the threeAs in this sense, the new rating system, Rollart, is already working fine. Figure skating competition must be to look forward to the Olympics Beautiful, convincing, amazing, from the first athlete to the track to the last. We in Italy are well used to it, but it suffices to look at the videos of the World Championships to realize that so far, The difference in height between the participating countries is so great that in some circumstances it is bad. Olympic sports can not afford a bad show Which, more often than not, in the first working groups (groups of skiers of the lowest level to be clear) are meticulously regulated, with athletes with defective technical characteristics, some of whom have great difficulty even with double jumps. In this case, it is appropriate to make a comparison with figure skating, where both the World Cup and the Olympic Games come from Show a fun show, with an appropriate and proportional level of progress from one group to another, To achieve excellence. In the wheels, this did not happen, and still The disparity between the best and lowest quality athletes is very clear, with a deep groove, talking about one, from the eighth position onwards. The Rollart, as mentioned above, Fortunately it slowly bears fruiti, matching even the most backward countries with proper timing. In this sense it will be interesting to assess the state of the art both at the European Championships in Riccione and, above all, at the World Championships in Asuncon.

though A deep desire on the part of everyoneSnowboarding doesn’t seem ready to take the big leap to Olympus just yet. But we are all sure, from start to finish, sooner or later, The dream will come true. But one thing is for sure: it will take time. a lot of time.

Photo: La Presse