Aurélien Giraud, a skateboarding prodigy, hopes to make it all the way to the Olympic gold medal round in Tokyo.
A. Giraud Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Aurélien Giraud, a skateboarding prodigy at age 23, will be the first athlete to compete in the “street” event at the Olympics for France. He wants to prove the naysayers wrong about skateboarding being an Olympic sport by winning a gold medal and expanding the sport’s prominence.
To put it another way, he was four years old. Aurélien Giraud first tried skating at the Gerland skatepark in his birthplace of Lyon when he was this age. He was getting ready to compete in the first Olympic skateboarding competition in Tokyo, Japan, 19 years after he originally became one of France’s top skateboarding sensations.
I remember being blown away by all the talented skaters when I first started out. Reminiscing, Aurélien Giraud reflects, “I wanted to be like them.
My parents had mixed reactions to my success in the sport: my dad was proud, but my mom was worried. The level of security she was providing for me was unprecedented. He laughs, “Others called me ‘Robocop.'”
Aurélien was only six years old when his father passed away. But she still takes him to the skatepark often. During this period, Régis Caillol, manager of Gerland, took him under his wing and provided him with a specially sized board. During his first competition, the V7 teenage tour, he stood out as a phenomenon of precocity.
I used to skateboard all the time because I enjoyed it so much,” he said. I didn’t eat and hardly drank anything. When I was sick after eight hours of skating, I put on a silly routine.
My eyes were rolling around in my mind, my head was banging, and I woke up in my own bed, with no recollection of the previous day. A blow to the skull, probably.
The Lyonnais need not be dissuaded from his preferred pastime; after all, “falls are part of skateboarding.”
The Turning Point: Tampa Airport
He was helped along from an early age by the Lyon specialised retailer Wall Street, and at the age of 13 he signed his first major contract with Red Bull.
His career took off, though, once he won the prestigious Tampa Am amateur event four years later. Later on, Aurélien Giraud makes a living as a skateboarder. An early fan of Ryan Sheckler’s is now working with him at skate company Plan B.
The Tokyo Olympics, which had to be postponed last year because of the CovD19 epidemic, will begin on July 23. Dozens of competitors will learn about this renowned sporting event in the midst of severe health constraints.
Several of the athletes who will be representing the new Olympic sports of surfing, skateboarding, climbing, karate, and 3 on 3 basketball were recently interviewed by France 24.
>To quote Anouck Jaubert, “It’s a major stride for climbing.”
>Part Two: Karate Experts, Mark Your Calendars for Tokyo in 2021 According to Steven Da Costa, “the health context removes much of the thrill of the Olympics.”
>Aurélien Giraud, a skateboarding prodigy, has his sights set on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
I never thought I’d get this far on my board. He talks about his gigs, contracts, photo shoots, and films, and how incredible it is to make a livelihood as a skateboarder while touring the world.
Aurélien, he has a fantastic feel for the board. “With him, it’s innate whereas others work on him for a long time,” says Jérémie Grynblat, his manager. Another one of his skills is that he can reliably replicate a trick once he’s mastered it. He continues, “It gets into his head.” And, “He also has a pop, an excellent explosiveness and he is able to go quite high,” the analyst added.
Skateboarding can be a tough way to make a living in France, but I’ve been able to win contests and build a dedicated fanbase. That would have been simpler, of course, if I were in the States.
Optimism in the United States
U.S. soil, and particularly the state of California, may lay claim to being the “skateboard mecca,” as this is where the sport was born. Aurélien Giraud will always remember his first transatlantic flight with great affection.
To this day, I still feel like I’m in a dream every time I visit the United States. Vincent Matheron [his friend and teammate on the French skating team, NDLR] and I were together. I couldn’t focus, so I gazed around wildly. From a young age, he always wanted to skate in the United States.
In 2021, he spent a month in California with Vincent Matheron, a French expat, training for the Dew Tour. His immediate goal is to get to California and start living the American dream there.
There are the best skateparks, all the skating greats, and the companies who support them. This is the hub of activity and the gathering place for all participants. If you want to level up, this is the action to do,” t -he says.
Skateboarding and the Olympics: a Tumultuous Union
Aurélien Giraud, who was ranked number six in the world heading into the 2021 World Street Championships, became the sport’s first Olympic qualifier.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent your country at the inaugural Olympic Skateboarding Games. It’s something to be proud of, but also something to worry about. To believe the young man, we will make every effort to retrieve the gold medal.
Although skateboarding fanatics like Aurélien Giraud are thrilled to see their sport included in the Olympics, not everyone agrees. Skateboarding, along with surfing, rock climbing, karate, and baseball/softball, were announced as new Olympic disciplines from Tokyo in 2016.
Some professional skateboarders protested against the idea, arguing that the libertarian ideal of their discipline was hardly compatible with the Olympic straitjacket.
Those who are Against the Olympics are the same People who Dislike Competition.
Skateboarding, according to the young man, is primarily a street activity for them. Turns are possible in skateboarding.
I’m glad to hear that because I think it will encourage more people to try it, but I wouldn’t recommend taking up skating just to compete in the Olympics. Skateboarding “isn’t that at the core, and it would be a shame to limit it to that,” he agrees.
What this means for skateboarding is great, in my opinion.
More and more young people are going to learn about and become interested in this field.
Manager Jérémie Grynblat says, “If there is interest, we will have more users, thus more skateparks, so more recognition, and we will be viewed less lightly at the institutional level.” We won’t try to hide the fact that it has commercial potential either. There will be more money for skate shops if we sell more boards.
But I get the people who worry that skateboarding may lose its identity. They’re traditionalists who won’t tolerate anyone who doesn’t share their dedication to the sport’s inherent freedoms. take it for one’s own financial gain,” he goes on, “.
Adding skateboarding to the Olympic schedule (au programme des JO) has many people wondering: “Why?” Profit can be made by selling the broadcasting rights and using the money to buy wheat. Manager Aurélien Giraud adds, “Young people today prefer to watch skate rather than 400m.” We’re working hard to put the appropriate individuals in charge of the Olympics.
If we were ever surrounded by folks who didn’t share our interest in skateboarding, we might smash the door in their faces. The Olympics have the potential to become a grand charade and fail to deliver as intended. In this scenario, though, at least we may claim, “We left a chance [au skate olympique].”
Conclusion
Even Aurélien Giraud’s manager understands his motivations: “Aurélien does not travel to the Olympics to put on pearls.
A gold medal is what he seeks. In any case, he is not able to accept coming in second or third. He would rather take a chance on a first-place finish than ensure a more comfortable finish.
