Skateboarding’s year on the rise will culminate in its inaugural appearance as an Olympic event.

Like golf and other outdoor sports, skateboarding has grown in popularity during the pandemic.

• After a major dip in skate and surf equipment sales at the onset of the pandemic, the industry rebounded and posted 15% year-over-year growth last June.
• California skate shops saw growth in demand last year but also grappled with supply chain issues related to the pandemic.
• Pre-pandemic estimates predicted the skateboard market would grow 3.1% annually, reaching $2.4 billion by 2025.

The sport, long associated with counterculture, is finding mainstream acceptance, with cities stepping up to fund skate parks. New York City recently opened up two new parks and made major upgrades to two others.

Now the sport is gearing up for its first appearance in the Olympics. The games will feature men’s and women’s events on two types of courses: street and park terrain. Runs last for 45 seconds and will be judged on a number of difficulty and style metrics.

The courses will be based on ones created for Vans Park Series, a skating competition started in 2016. Nike is sponsoring the Olympic skateboarding federations from the U.S., Brazil, Japan, and France.

The skate parks used for the Tokyo games will also be open to the public so that hobbyists can see if they are Olympic-level material.

The NCAA women’s volleyball championship kicked off at the CHI Health Center Arena and Convention Center on Wednesday in Omaha, Nebraska. Before the 48-team field even arrived, coaches criticized the lack of resources at the tournament. Some issues were later rectified — after public outcry. 

While the sport appears to be overlooked, the numbers tell a different story: Growth and revenue opportunities are booming at all levels of women’s volleyball. 

At the high school level, women’s volleyball has grown in popularity, according to the National Federation of State High School Association. It even outperformed women’s basketball in 2018-19 — which demonstrated tremendous value at the college level. 

When college athletes get the rights to their name, image, and likeness, women’s volleyball players can potentially make thousands of dollars annually. Northwestern’s Alana Walker — who has about 115,000 Instagram followers — could earn more than $156,000, according to the Student Athlete NIL newsletter.

Interest in the sport has been so strong that Athletes Unlimited decided to form the only U.S. professional indoor women’s volleyball league. It committed $1 million in salaries, according to Forbes. The 44-player league staged its inaugural season this past February and March. 

The league was broadcast on Fox Sports and CBS Sports Net, and Nike and GEICO jumped in as corporate partners. And it had global viewership: It was picked up in more than 100 countries. 

Indoor women’s professional volleyball was “probably the largest untapped opportunity in pro sports in this country,” Athletes Unlimited CEO and co-founder Jon Patricof told FOS.

For more, read this week’s edition of FOS College.

Spartan Race CEO and co-founder Joe De Sena spearheaded a purchase of rival Tough Mudder out of bankruptcy, a deal that was finalized in February 2020.

Then the pandemic hit.

“So, here we were dealing with the worst thing we could possibly deal with: a global shutdown,” De Sena told Front Office Sports. “We would be frauds if we blinked, crawled in the corner, and started crying.”

The first Tough Mudder event since December 2019 is slated for April 24-25 outside Atlanta. It will run with about a third of the traditional capacity, with pre-event health screening surveys and event workers/volunteers in masks.

Spartan Race and Tough Mudder have 64 U.S. events scheduled this year. The average cost for a Spartan Race is $130 and Tough Mudder’s average entry fee is $93. Four Spartan events have already taken place. 

“The millions of people who took up running or cycling or have been working out in their basement or garage over the past year haven’t had an outlet to actually put that to work,” Tough Mudder CEO Kyle McLaughlin said. “The number of new customers is off the charts right now.”

The pandemic forced between 15,000-20,000 events to be canceled or postponed last year, according to industry trade group Running USA. That trend has continued into this year with major road races. The Boston Marathon — which was canceled last year and would traditionally run in April — is now scheduled for Oct. 11. 

“We are not likely to see events with 40,000 people, but we may start seeing events with 10,000 and 20,000 participants with best practices in place,” Running USA CEO Dawna Stone told FOS.

Nintendo will direct its focus toward developing more original intellectual property for its best-selling console ever, the Switch.

“Games are not a necessity of life. In order for customers to choose games in their finite time, they have to be interesting. Competition is tough,” Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa told Nikkei. 

The Switch has sold nearly 80 million units since its launch in 2017 and moved 11.57 million units in the last three months of 2020, its best quarter yet. Lifetime software sales for the Switch have reached 532 million units, as well. 

Nintendo expects to reach $12.8 billion in revenue for its fiscal year ending March 2021.

The Switch’s best-selling game, “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe,” has sold more than 33 million copies. It’s been a challenge for Nintendo to develop new IP that can generate the same success, but the company is prioritizing more original series going forward.

“We are constantly building up ideas for the new consoles the market is expecting,” said Furukawa. 

Nintendo is also planning to release an upgraded model of the Switch in the near future. However, Furukawa has warned that the global semiconductor shortage may create production issues for the console.