“It should have been there all along. That's my attitude. They needed our cool factor more than we needed their validation.”
Founder's Story · October 2026
The host asks about the Olympic torch on display and the moment skateboarding got into the Games. Hawk says he helped pitch the sport over the years, then stepped back once it was included so nobody would think he was setting the rules.
Transcript
Honestly, AI has not been able to replicate skateboarding properly. So I don't really consider it at this point. I mean, it's unfortunate that maybe at some point it's going to fool people that they think, oh, that person actually did this trick or whatever it is, or this trick exists. But I don't really see it benefiting or degrading skating.
I see you have something over here. It's the Olympic flame. I don't know if that's what it's called, but the Olympic torch. And I Said that it's when the Olympics brought on skateboarding. What was that moment for you like?
It was cool. I mean, I was helping the process along as much as I could through the years, through the early days, too, of what are all the hoops you have to jump through? You know, what are the connections you have to make? I mean, I went to Lausanne. I pitched skateboarding as a discipline. And then when I Said that it was going to be actually included in the Tokyo Games, I Said off of my involvement because I Said want anyone to think that I was manipulating it, that I was somehow making the rules. You know what I mean? I just like, I Said want to be responsible for the decisions they were making like that because I also didn't have the bandwidth to help in the minutiae like that. So it was more like, okay, it's in the Olympics. As far as I'm concerned, my work is done. And I mean, it should have been there all along. Like, you know, that's my attitude. They needed our cool factor more than we needed their validation. I
know, like, they have that with
breakdancing, maybe. That's
true.
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