'Action sports' making their debut at a time when loyal audience is aging

The 7,000 seats at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo will be empty when the street skateboarding competition kicks off on Sunday, but organizers are hoping a surgeof fans tune in to the coverage and that the new Olympic sport helps make the Games more relevant to a younger population.

Skateboarding, which started to emerge on the streets in the 1950s, is making the jump this year to the Olympic stage along with other new events, including surfing,sportclimbing and karate.

"I am really stoked to be here," said Letcia Bufoni, a 28-year-old skateboarder from Sao Paulo, Brazil, who is considered one of the favourites to win a medal in the street competition.

Theevent will be held in a temporary venue that was constructed for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020. Itfeatures a course with handrails, curbs and slopes, where skaters perform tricks and are evaluated by judges on difficulty and style.

Bufoni, whospoke to CBCNews after a training session under a scorching sun on Wednesday, saidit was amazing to be in Tokyobecause she never thought she would be an Olympian.

"It is going to be huge for skateboarding, but also for the Olympics," she said.

The push for a younger audience

When the International Olympic Committee announced in August 2016 the addition of five sports for Tokyo 2020, the president said it was an effort to "take sport to the youth."

"With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them,"Thomas Bachsaid at the time.

Sport Explainer: Skateboarding

3 years ago

Duration 3:19

Skateboarding is a new Olympic discipline at Tokyo 2020. Get to know the sport.

One expert says the IOC is hopeful so-called "action sports" can bring in younger viewers at a time when the loyal Olympic audience is aging.

Belinda Wheaton, a professor at the University of Waikatoin New Zealand, has beenstudying the topicfor years. She said theresearch shows that in North America, which boasts the largest television audience for the Games, the age of viewers is creeping up.

During the last Summer Olympicsin Rio, the median age of viewers in the U.S. was 53. And compared to the 2012 London Games,there was a 30 per cent drop in viewing among the 18 to 34 age group, said Wheaton.

"The people who are watching are older men," shesaid."They are really concerned by that because, obviously, they need young people to stay relevant."

No spectators

According to the IOC, 73 per cent of its revenue is generated by broadcasting rights, and Wheaton says the model only works if people are watching.

In Tokyo, organizers had hoped to create an interactive fan experience around most of the new sports and disciplines, including 3x3 basketball, where games are played on a half-court and last 10 minutes, at most.

But the pandemic and bans around spectators have quashed those plans.

Wheaton says the ultimate goal is to get people watching on television and, in particular, online.

"[These sports]have big followings from their fans," Wheaton said."They are very media friendly. They have a lot of sponsorship and advertising and the IOC is really aware."

Snowboarding debut

She says organizers would love to repeat the success of snowboarding, which helped to reinvigorate the Winter Games.

Itwasadded in 1998 during the Nagano Winter Games, despite oppositionfrom some of the world's best snowboarders who saw the Olympicmovement as too corporate and capitalistic.

In 2015, Wheaton surveyed more than 900 athletes whoparticipate in action sports and she said they had a range of views about the Olympic movement.Some didn't think the Games would everbe the pinnacle of sports like skateboarding and surfing, but others saw it as a chance to grow interest.

Looking ahead

While officials will evaluate how popular these new sports are for the Olympic audience, there are already new additions for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.

Those Games will feature kiteboarding and breaking, also known as break dancing, and there are discussions around trying to include parkour in future Olympics.