Olympics-Skateboarding's reputation does a 180 as it rolls into Paris

By Rory Carroll

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Once viewed as the pastime of deadbeats and drifters, skateboarding's reputation is changing rapidly after its inclusion in the Olympics Games in Tokyo three years ago.

The sport brought in a much-needed younger audience on its Olympic debut in 2021, leading organisers 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".

"Perceptions changed a lot after the Olympics," Brazilian Felipe Gustavo told Reuters at an event that brought the world's top skaters to Red Bull's Athletic Performance Center in Los Angeles.

"We were always getting judged as being criminals, doing drugs, all this stuff.

"Now it's like, those are the cool kids from TV. Every time we're riding our skateboard in the airport everybody is like, 'oh, my son skates'. The mentality is changing."

Gustavo, who competed in street in Tokyo and will do so again in Paris, became a folk hero in Brazil after his father sold the family car to buy plane tickets to a competition in Florida that his teenage son won as a complete unknown.

Now 33, he hopes even more people will be drawn to the sport after its second turn on the Olympic stage.

"Skateboarding saved my life. Where would I be if I wasn't skating?", he added.

"It could save so many people's lives."

The notion that skateboarding is the exclusive domain of boys and men is also fading, with women like Tokyo gold medallist Sakura Yosozumi of Japan and Britain's Sky Brown among the sport's most recognisable names.

"When I go down to skate parks there are so many little girls there," Australian Chloe Covell said.

"It's just amazing to see them all."

The 14-year-old street specialist was first drawn to the sport when she was six and saw American skateboarding icon and Paris gold medal favourite Nyjah Huston on TV.

"After that I got a board and just started practising heaps and heaps. I loved it and just got better and better," she added.

"Now when I go down to the local skate park people come up to me and ask for photos. It's really amazing."

Ryan Decenzo, a 38-year-old Canadian preparing to compete in his first Olympics, said the qualities that make a great skateboarder are no different than those you need in any other sport.

"You've got to have drive, focus, commitment and not be afraid to fail or fall," he said.

"And you have to love it enough that those falls aren't going to make you give up."

(This story has been refiled to fix Ryan Decenzo's age to 38 in paragraph 17)

(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles, editing by Ed Osmond)