Hello and welcome back to Tyson’s Thoughts.
I was originally planning to write a long and impassioned editorial about how skateboarding shouldn’t be in the Olympics and why I think it shouldn’t even be considered a sport at all, but then I thought about it some more and realized that I’m kind of stuck in the middle on the issue.
It’s actually a tough thing for me to write about, because when I was a kid growing up in the early 90s, skateboarding wasn’t about medals and wasn’t really thought of as a sport. It was more of a culture, really; one with a rebel ethos that I still to this day subscribe to.
On the other side of the coin, I can appreciate it being included in the Olympics because it will inevitably draw more attention to skateboarding, which will then lead to more kids getting boards and more skateparks being built for the youth, which in my opinion is always a good thing.
With that said, I will continue to cling to my rebel ethos with a deathlike grip, the same way that I have ever since I was a young and impressionable kid who first discovered riding a plank of wood with wheels bolted to it.
Skateboarding has always been there for me, and it always will be there for me even when I get too old to skate anymore, regardless of whether it is considered an Olympic sport.
Tyson Whitney is an award-winning journalist who was born and raised in Port Hardy. His family has lived in Port Hardy for more than 40 years. He graduated with a degree in writing from Vancouver Island University in 2008.
@NIGazette
editor@northislandgazette.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter