To Olympic purists, the idea of awarding gold medals to skateboarding and breakdancing may seem like a gimmick, but for the International Olympic Committee and its longtime commercial partners, these new sports are becoming useful tools for connecting with younger audiences.
IOC President Thomas Bach has repeatedly declared that urban sports are the future of the Olympics. “Sport has to go where people are, whether that’s in the real world or the virtual world,” he said at an event earlier this year. “So these urban sports are crucial for the long-term development of the Olympics.”
The IOC has added several new disciplines to the Tokyo program: sport climbing, BMX freestyle and skateboarding, and breaking (more commonly known as breakdancing) will join them at the Paris Games next week.
As sports executives around the world struggle with changing tastes, the IOC hopes the cultural cachet of these new sports and the athletes who participate in them will attract a younger generation of fans to the Olympics, helping to allay concerns about their declining importance.
Brazilian skateboarder Leixa Leal, who has attracted major sponsorship, practices for the Paris Games © Odd Andersen/AFP via Getty Images
“These sports add something very new and very valuable: new, younger audiences,” said IOC sports director Kit McConnell. “As we move from a linear to a digital generation, these athletes and their fans live in that space, so adding them to the Olympic program allows us to make a real connection with these communities around the world.”
Those athletes include Brazil’s Leisa Leal, who became a skateboarding sensation at age 7 when a grainy cellphone video of her landing a heelflip while dressed as an elf was shared on social media by the most famous skater of all time, Tony Hawk, but never expected the whirlwind of fame that would hit her when, at age 13, she won a silver medal in women’s street skateboarding at the Tokyo Olympics.
Since her Instagram account gained 6.4 million followers, Lille has begun attracting the support of blue-chip sponsors such as Louis Vuitton, Samsung, Snickers and Banco do Brasil. Lille will compete in Paris as a 16-year-old medalist from the previous Olympics, but in recent years has turned to sports psychologists to help her cope with the sudden changes. “I’m still very young and everything has happened so fast in my life,” she said last year.
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Sky Brown, a 16-year-old British skateboarder, has also racked up endorsement deals since winning a bronze medal in Tokyo at age 13. Brown caught Nike’s eye before she won a medal, but since the Tokyo Games she has amassed more than 2 million followers on TikTok and signed deals with watch brand Tag Heuer, South Korean electronics brand Samsung and payments company Visa, which has been an Olympic sponsor for more than 40 years.
“We have supported each new sport as it is registered, recognising that they bring new athletes, excitement and inclusivity to the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Kim Kadlec, chief marketing officer at Visa Europe.
Even modern sports are attracting corporate interest. Shigekix, a top Japanese breaker and b-boy, has numerous sponsorship deals, including with German car maker Mercedes, Kose cosmetics and G-Shock watches. He recently became the face of an advertising campaign aimed at encouraging young people in Japan to buy life insurance.
Although they did not qualify for the Olympics, members of the GB Olympic Breaking Team were appointed as brand ambassadors for Eurostar and have individual partnerships with Samsung, Nike and Google Pixel.
“This is the most money I’ve made from breakdancing in two years,” says Sunni, a b-boy who recently appeared in a Subway ad. “It’s not a quick win, it’s not life-changing, but it’s nice.”
B-Boy Shigekix’s sponsors include Mercedes © Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Anson said the addition of city sport made it easier to demonstrate to commercial partners that the Olympics remained a “highly valuable asset”. Team GB recently signed partnership deals with TikTok and radio group Global.
“We need to make sure the Olympics are still as relevant to young people as they always have been,” he said. “The skateboarding, BMX park, climbing and other events in Tokyo definitely resonated with a younger audience, and we’re seeing the benefits. It’s not just that these sports are fun, it’s the athletes that come out of them that are fun.”
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Earlier this year, the IOC tried to capitalize on the recent surge in interest in these urban sports by packaging them through the Olympic Qualification Series, a two-stage event in Shanghai and Budapest to decide places in Paris. With financial backing from the host governments that allowed free admission, more than 100,000 people attended the two festival-like showcases.
The IOC hopes to use lessons learned from this experience to generate more interest in the qualification process and create more “touch points” with sponsors throughout the four-year Olympic cycle.
“Our partners have responded tremendously to being able to engage with these events and the sports and athletes that take place there,” McConnell said.
Ricardo Fort, an independent consultant who previously ran global sponsorship for both Visa and Coca-Cola, said many of the big sponsors are unlikely to worry about appealing to a young mass audience, with big-name athletes like Simone Biles and LeBron James still capturing most of the audience’s attention.But for some consumer brands, the allure of reaching young online communities will be real.
“No sponsor is going to terminate or not renew their contracts tomorrow because urban sports are gone,” he said. “At the same time, all sponsors welcome the addition of urban sports as an evolution of what the Olympics can offer. The audience is different. And urban sports really add up, even if they’re not as big as the better-known sports.”
Additional reporting by Sarah Germano
