IOC coordination commission leader Denis Oswalddeclines to say if he talked to London 2012 about skateboarding this week. (ATR)(ATR) The possibility of skateboard joining the 2012 Olympics has drawn careful comments from the IOC member who leads oversight of the London Games, while an analysis of sports blogs around the world shows not much interest in Olympic skateboarding.
Speaking at the closing press conference of the this week’s meeting of the IOC Coordination Commission, chairman Denis Oswald declined to say whether skateboarding had been discussed with London 2012 during the three days of meetings.
He revealed little more in reply to a question on the chances of the new sport joining the Olympics, saying "skateboarding is an event of the cycling federation”.
"There is a process for federations to propose new events or to exchange one event for another. It is up to the UCI to determine whether they want to make a proposal and then the IOC will study it,” he says.
As a member of the IOC Executive Board, Oswald will have a say on skateboarding, if plans advance.
In fact, skateboarding is not yet a discipline of cycling. The UCI leadership is supposed to discuss the possibility this month. If approved, the UCI Congress would then have to sign-off on whether to adopt skateboard as a form of cycling. Then the proposal would go to the IOC EB.
Last week the IOC held talks with the UCI on the question of skateboarding as a new discipline. Within an existing sport such as cycling, skateboard could be added to the Olympics as late as 2009 by vote of the IOC EB.
FIRS, the International Federation for Roller Sports, says it considers skateboard a discipline, a position which could cloud the long-term governance for the sport. An International Skateboard Federation also exists, its leadership involved with the IOC/UCI discussions.
If skateboard is considered part of roller sport, which is not currently on the Olympic program, or as a recognized international federation, the path to the Olympics becomes more difficult. Approval by a majority of the IOC Session is required, seven years ahead of the Games. And with that deadline long passed for London, the discipline route is the only way to bring skateboarders to the 2012 Games.
Oswald may be playing safe with his comments on skateboarding as he also serves as president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations.
The 28-member group had a nervous time in 2005 when the IOC reviewed the program for the 2012 Games, dumping baseball and softball and rejecting five new sports for the program: golf, rugby, squash, roller sport and karate.
Since then, Oswald and the federations have had discussions with the IOC about improving the process for review of the Olympic program.
An analysis of sport fan blogs by U.S.-based Sports Media Challenge has found reaction generally negative to the addition of skateboard to the Olympics. The analysis shows 47 percent opposed 34 percent neutral and 17 percent in favor.
More ominous for the impact of skateboard on interest in the Olympics may be the “Buzz” rating that measures how much attention the issue is receiving. The Buzz for skateboard is just 3 out of 10 points.
With reporting from London by Mark Bisson
Mark@aroundtherings.com
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