Crash Landing: Skateboard Unlikely To Join Olympics In 2012

Skateboarding Unlikely To Be On 2012 Olympic Roster

Plans to bring skateboarding to the Olympics starting with the 2012 London Games are "headed for a crash landing," according to sources cited by AROUND THE RINGS. Discussions have been underway "for months" between the Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) and "leaders of the nascent International Skateboard Federation" about forming a partnership, but UCI's "ardor for skateboarding has cooled ... in the face of a number of issues, several of them involving breaches of established rules and requirements for adding" a sport to the Olympics. UCI Sports Dir Olivier Queguiner said no decision on skateboarding will occur during the UCI Congress later this month. Not applying for Olympic consideration this year "effectively kills the chance of adding" the sport by 2012. Sources said that the IOC "will take no action on skateboarding until it hears from the UCI." One source revealed that 2016 "is a more likely start for skateboard" (AROUNDTHERINGS.com, 9/17).