LOS ANGELES ¨C Once viewed as the pastime of deadbeats and drifters, skateboarding¡¯s reputation is changing rapidly after its inclusion in the Olympic Games in Tokyo three years ago.
The sport brought in a much-needed younger audience on its Olympic debut in 2021, leading organizers to lock it in for the Paris Games and its homecoming party in Los Angeles in 2028.
That is a far cry from the 1980s and ¡¯90s when ¡°sidewalk surfers¡± were seen by many as a nuisance and banned from many public spaces in the United States, resulting in the rise of the popular protest slogan ¡°Skateboarding is not a crime.¡±
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