27/07/2021
Many, maybe too many, said that skateboarding is not a sport.
Somebody, with the irony and silliness of someone who deeply lived skateboarding, even said that “skateboarding is not a sandwich”. Skateboarding is indeed something close to a game, a channel to express ourselves, a way to interact with the world and others… Who knows. Anyway it is a game where everything is permitted, even the Olympics apparently, although taking a urine test before riding seem like a contradiction.
Well, welcome to the Olympics! Welcome to their values: solidarity, friendship, participation, equality and respect. We had the chance to learn those values thanks to skateboarding.
Among the Warriors it was never the level of skateboarding that would guarantee inclusion in the group; even the less talented always had the right to bring home his trick and feel part of the crew.
Among the Olympic values there is also fair play. This is maybe the one Olympic principle that struggles to fit with skateboarding. Among the Warriors we have always respected people—the rules, not so much. Fair play also means loyalty. Among our group, in our journey, not everybody was always loyal but this gave us the opportunity to love one another despite the unfair behaviours.
We were able to do so thanks to two values that skateboarding and being part of Warriors taught us—two values that are not part of the Olympic ones: irony and frivolity. Irony and frivolity are perhaps the most important values we have learned thanks to the Warriors.
Everything is relative. Everything is evolving. Let’s not take ourselves too seriously!
Text: Gilles Gallicchio
Pic: Alan Maag
