As female BMXers are vying to get a place at the X Games banquet women’s vert skaters, including our super-talented cover star and eight-times medallist Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins, are being shown the back door as the X Games gets set to ditch women’s vert skateboarding.
Pourquoi? You may ask when women’s skateboarding is a growth sport and vert one of the most exciting and crowd-pleasing elements of the discipline. An ESPN statement muttered something about wanting sports with “an established annual competition schedule and ample access to courses” on which they may have a slight point and “rising youth talent pools and low barriers of entry into the sport” on which they clearly don’t.
Lyn-Z told ESPN, “Being in the X Games is the motivation behind most women vert skaters, it’s what we dream of and strive for. So what the heck are we supposed to dream of now…this, unfortunately, is going to end the growth for women’s vert skating as we know it.”
The global icon and good buddy of Lyn-Z , Tony Hawk, told ESPN , “I think it’s a shame, especially with the amount of interest in women’s skating and new talent lately.”
Be sure to sign the petition against women’s vert skateboarding being taken out of the X Games here
Tony Hawk
