PARIS — Inside the skateboard park at Place de la Concorde on Tuesday, fans braved blistering temperatures and no small amount of body odor poisoning the air around them. Why? Easy. They were watching the best women’s skateboarders in the world ply their trade in an Olympic final, inside a venue stuffed to the brim with people, colors, beats and food. Many could see the Luxor Obelisk—the gold-brimmed, ancient Egyptian centerpiece in the Place de la Concorde—from their seats, sometimes with skateboarders soaring into view in front of it. Others could spy the Eiffel Tower; still others, if they craned their necks, could behold the Arc de Triomphe, far off in the distance, or the Grand Palais.
Still, as the final unfolded round by round on Tuesday evening, fewer heads looked yonder and most every head looked down. Park skateboarding ranks among the most visceral of Olympic sports. There are 540-degree spins— think: one full spin and another half, while flying through the air and, ideally, landing on a skateboard. There are body varials that incorporate those spins, boards rotating along with bodies. There are, in the sport’s parlance, shreds and hips, along with flips, handplants, spins and grinds. It’s part art; it’s all athleticism.
