After decades of trying to get into the Olympics, skateboarding makes its debut with the men’s street contest at sweltering, sun-baked Ariake Urban Sports Park. Twenty men qualified for the event, and by midday Sunday in Tokyo, the first skateboarding gold medal will be awarded.
We arrived 90 minutes before the first heat, and skaters were already warming up, quite literally. Temperatures were expected to be in the 90s, and shade is almost nonexistent. As with most skate contests, there is music and an upbeat announcer. There is no crowd, of course, other than a swarm of sweating reporters sitting on one end.