Sport or lifestyle, that question has divided the skateboarding world.
However, we can state that it is one of the most technical and difficult things out there.
In addition, the concrete is hard and the body is soft.
If you ask Sweden’s best skater, 17-year-old Hampus Winberg, there is no doubt. He doesn’t feel he has to choose.
– I want to stand with my feet in both worlds. When I ran the X-games last year, it was a childhood dream come true. But the Olympics were not even in the picture when I was younger, says Winberg
He won his first senior SM gold as a 13-year-old, and from the audience you could then hear seasoned skaters say: “That’s a future world star!”
The Olympic hope lives on
Skateboarding entered the Olympic program as recently as three years ago in Tokyo 2021 and you compete in the park and street. For Hampus, it is the park that counts.
One qualifying competition remains and hope is still alive for the 17-year-old from Varberg to represent Sweden in Paris.
He has been training harder than ever before.
– I hope it goes well and that my tricks deliver as I want them to. Then we’ll see what the results are. I put the most pressure on myself and want to prove to myself that I can do what I want, says Hampus.
Hampus Winberg still goes to high school at home in Varberg and trains like any hard-working athlete. A lot of skateboarding, of course, but also a strict physical regimen at the gym. He has been in SOK’s top and talent program for just over three years.
Sport or lifestyle?
For him, it is as much a sport as a lifestyle. Maybe it’s the younger generation who look at it differently, but they’re also the ones pushing the sport forward, who are more athletic and who increase the difficulty of the tricks.
The older guard saw it almost exclusively as its own culture and lifestyle and opposed skateboarding’s entry into the Olympics.
In the past, it has been just as important for many to have good “cred” in the skate world and to have good parts in films or many views on social media. But for Hampus Winberg, the medals are at least as important.
– For me it is both a sport and a culture and my big goal is to be the best in the world and win an Olympic gold, says Sweden’s best skater.