Skateboarding made its first appearance in the Olympics in Tokyo. Isn´t that great? Well, some think it is, for others it represents a collision of two incompatible cultures of movement/sport. Drs Brian Glenney and Paul O’Connor visited the Meaningful Sport podcast to share their thinking and recent work on meaning of skateboarding and what happens with skateboarding collides with the Olympic ideology.
Our conversation was recorded a couple of weeks before the Olympics and draws on Brian and Paul’s recent article “When Myths Collide: Skateboarding and Olympics Narratives“.
According to Brian and Paul, Olympic Games is a corporate, nationalistic, spectator-based and points-based institution.
On the other hand, skateboarding is skater-owned, globalist, cooperative, rebellious and style-centred lifestyle sport culture.
Is it possible, at all, to put these together, and what about the power differential when the different meaning structures clash? Does David have any chance against Goliath?
In this fun episode – partly recorded from the beach – Brian and Paul take us on a journey to understand the meanings and values associated with skateboarding and the tensions associated with the inclusion in the Olympics.
A big part of part 1 is also focused on how skateboarding is associated with religion and questions about a meaningful life. This part draws from Paul’s book Skateboarding and Religion. As Paul puts it, we should not be thinking only of meaningful sport (although this is relevant, too), but first and foremost about meaningful life, and how physical cultures such as skateboarding can contribute to this.
Part 1 here:
The second part continues directly from where we left off, but the conversation flows to exploring social justice issues and inclusivity in skateboarding, and some forecasts on what might happen in the Olympics.
Part 2 here:
Dr Brian Glenney is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Norwich University and Dr Paul O’Connor is lecturer in Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Exeter.
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Paul and Brian also shared many great resources for further exploration:
Example of pure fun skateboarding: Worble and Cobra Man’s “Worble III” Video https://youtu.be/kWhyPZgiXI8
Zion Wright from team USA making the case for skateboarding in the streets (cued to spot 47:50); GODSPEED by Davonte Jolly: https://youtu.be/ZYAzo5OdqHM?t=2870
Leo Baker Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CQq60MADh1y/