After weeks of meeting, presentations and debate, the IOC has officially accepted Skiboarding (snow blading) into the Olympics with 2 events: Skiboard Big Air and a mount resort obstacle course.
The introduction of the sport comes after ICO president Jacques Rogge’s hidden love and great talent for the sport surfaced in a recent interview about the 2014 games. In fact, he has so much passion and talent for the sport, he has already qualified to compete for his country of Belgium in the games. “I am very excited to be a part of the Olympic uprising of one of the most progressive, competitive sports on earth today.” said Rogge “It has been an easy decision for the IOC and will likely double the viewership of  the games.” Critics of Rogge seem to think otherwise “[Rogge] only added skiboarding for his own personal enjoyment, the vote was 1 to 204 but Rogge still managed to push it through.” Though it seems that Rogge is very out numbered on the topic, the United States have already put $100 000 000 towards training for their athletes including a state of the art indoor big air which they will be able to practice with during the summer months as well as moved the top olympic trainers from working with athletes like the olympic hockey team and figure skaters to working with the two skiboarders they expect to take the cake in 2014.
Both events are expected to be two of the most progressional events ever in the olympics. The first, a skiboard Big Air will include a 90 foot gap which will boots competitors 60 feet high while they perform aerobatic moves which are still under development after this sport was only recently introduced into the olympics. Concern around gaining enough speed by the competitors to actually clear the 90 foot gap while preforming moves is growing greatly as it appears currently most skiboarders can not reach anything above 10 miles per hour. The second event is an interactive event which does a great job of portraying the true sport of snowblading. A gauntlet style obstacle course in which competitors must finish a run at the local ski hill while being harassed by onlookers and likely being pelted with snowballs or cut off by real skiers or snowboarders.
A recent snowblader enthusiast was interviewed by Whistler’s Pique:
“This is unexpected,” said Earl Bailey, who runs the association out of the back of his car in Collingwood, Ontario. “We’ve got a few young kids that have shown some interest, but nobody is competing at the highest level right now. And we’re having trouble finding insurance, to be honest. And a store that carries snow blades.”
It is likely that the events will change the face of the Olympics forever and likely for the best, but what do you think?
Is snowblading truly an olympic sport?