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After a wait of four long years, the Summer Olympics are back with their 30th edition being held in the beautiful city of Paris, France. Some 203 countries will be competing for either a gold, silver, or a bronze across 32 sports in 329 events scheduled between mid-July and mid-August. 10,500 athletes will be coming with some dreams, some hope, and a lot of training for this event.
Over the past few years, a variety of new games have bean added to the official list of sports played in the Olympics. This year is no exception and the Paris Olympics have included, what you call, Extreme Sports to their arsenal this time. These are fairly new additions but swipe away quite a lot of enthusiasm and excitement away.
What are Extreme Sports?
Extreme Sports are characterized by high risk factors and playing at high speed. This involves sports which require the player to take risk, play outside the traditional sports’ rules, and play to survive.
You will definitely feel your adrenaline levels spiking once you get into this category of sports. But there’s always a safety risk in games like these is you play without any sense of risk management. This is what the Olympics committee pays heed to- which is why a lot of extreme sports had started being added slowly and steadily to the summer and winter Olympics after 1995. Fortunately, not man injuries are reported for these events which makes it a nice and breezy task for the committee to organize them.
In Paris Olympics
Mountain biking and snowboarding were the first sports to be added in the summer Olympics 1996 and the winter Olympics 1998, respectively. Since then, extreme sports like skateboarding, surfing, kayaking, and BMX freestyle have started getting incorporated into the official list of sports played in the Olympics. The 2024 Paris Olympics are the 30th edition of the Summer Olympics. Let’s see which sports have made it to its list.
BMX freestyle
In the BMX freestyle kind of cycling, the riders are trained and required to perform tricks like spinning, flying across ramps, flips, and tail whips for 60 seconds.
Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/lima2019juegos/51739011452
BMX is shortform for ‘Bicycle Motorcross’ which is called so because the sport involves running over dirt and performing tricks on their no-gear bicycles. It isn’t a race- it’s a competition where riders have to win by doing tricks in an obstacle course planned out by them. Then, it’s up to the judges to analyze criteria like the variety of tricks, number of obstacles, risk factor, flow, landings, and difficulty in order to crown someone the victor.
BMX freestyle was introduced in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics but without spectators because of the ongoing COVID pandemic. It will be in the 2024 Paris Olympics that for the first time in Olympian history, this sport will be organized in front of live spectators. The qualification rounds for both women’s and men’s category will be held on 30 July, 2024 and the formal rounds will be held on July 31, 2024.
Surfing
Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-surfing-on-waves-390051/
Another game which debuted in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, surfing makes a comeback this 2024 and will be held in a semi-autonomous French territory called Tahiti. The official spot chosen here is the Teahupo’o, also called the End of the Road, which loosely translates to the ‘Wall of Skulls’. Fitting name for an extreme sport, huh?
Some 24 men and 24 women will be competing for a spot on the podium and will participate in three prelims, then the Quarters, the Semis and at last, the finals. 5 judges will be seated nearby- analyzing and judging the ease and flow of the surfers. They will also be looking out for tricks and maneuvers performed by these surfers on the waves.
We don’t have a fixed date for the competition because of the unpredictable nature of the waves and the weather, but the competition window stretches from July 27th to August 4th. We will probably get to see the teams in action if four days can be arranged during the best conditions.
Skateboarding
28 July and 29 July were the dates chosen for the women’s and men’s skateboarding tournaments, respectively. After scoring a win for team Japan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Horigome Yuto took the gold in the men’s category back home again this year after competing in the- as Ryan Sheckler puts it- “the gnarliest final of competitive skateboarding that I’ve ever seen”.
History was created by Richard Tury from Slovakia, Cordano Russell from Canada, and Matias Dell Olio from Argentina as they were the first athletes from their countries to have qualified for the men’s street finals at the Olympics.
Sky Brown, the bronze medalist from Great Britain who was the youngest to have scored an Olympic medal at the age of 13 in the 2020 Tokyo games, was chosen again this time to compete for her country. She will be seen competing in the finals for Women’s Park on August 4, 2024.
Mountain Biking
Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/biker-holding-mountain-bike-on-top-of-mountain-with-green-grass-161172/
The finals of the mountain bike cycling tournament were quite exciting, unpredictable, and memorable.
In the women’s category, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot won the gold as she ‘dominated’ the cross-country race in front of the crowd. She had finished 10th at the 2020 games, recorded a ‘Did Not Finish’ in the 2016 Rio games, and suffered from a heartbreak both times. But as they say ‘your failure doesn’t define you, your comeback does’, Pauline finished the race this time in a record 1:26:02! This is even faster than her male counterpart who finished in 1:26:22!
Speaking of the male counterpart, Tom Pidcock kept the audience on their toes as he punctured one of his tires during the race. Victor Koretzky had taken the lead when Pidock overcame the puncture and took the lead only at the very final lap. This was Pidcock’s second consecutive gold after Tokyo 2020, and he is the first cyclist since 2008 to win a gold back-to-back for two games. Koretzky finished in 1:26:31. Another player worth mentioning is Alan Hatherly who became the first ever South African mountain biker to win bronze.
Resources
- List of 41 Extreme Sports | Intense To Insane Sports. (2015, March 4). Active Cities. https://activecities.com/blog/extreme-sports-listed-from-intense-to-insane/
- Olympic Surfing | Paris 2024 Olympics. (2024). Olympics.com. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/surfing
- Skateboarding Park. (2024). Olympics.com; International Olympic Committee. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/skateboarding
- Murray, I., Tham, X., & Coggin, A. (2024, July 25). The extreme sports stars set to make Paris 2024 the gnarliest Olympics ever. British GQ; British GQ. https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/paris-2024-olympics-team-gb-extreme-sports
- Nelsen, M. (2024, July 24). Paris 2024 Olympics: Full list of country names and codes for IOC National Olympic Committees. Olympics.com; International Olympic Committee. https://olympics.com/en/news/paris-2024-olympics-full-list-ioc-national-olympic-committee-codes
- BMX Freestyle. (2024). Olympics.com; International Olympic Committee. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/sports/cycling-bmx-freestyle
- Pierson, D. (2024, May 27). Olympic Surfing 101: Everything to Know Before Paris 2024. Surfer; Surfer. https://www.surfer.com/news/olympic-surfing-paris-2024-teahupoo-tahiti
- Presto, G. (2024, April 23). BMX Freestyle at the Olympic Qualifier Series: Everything you need to know. Olympics.com; International Olympic Committee. https://olympics.com/en/news/bmx-freestyle-at-the-olympic-qualifier-series-everything-you-need-to-know
- Extreme sports | Definition, Examples, & Facts | Britannica. (2024). In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/sports/extreme-sports
