Photograph from The Guardian, 4th August 2021

Highfield Park Skate Park – Exciting times for urban sports at home and away

Sky Brown made history as the youngest medallist in British history to receive an Olympic medal, achieving Bronze after only 28 days as a teenager.  Skateboarding was a new Olympic Sport in 2020 and is expected to be around for the 2024 games also.

Charlotte Worthington achieved Gold in BMX Freestyle, having crowdfunded to get to the Olympics in Tokyo, and Declan Brooks Bronze.  Declan claimed to have been spurred on by medals in BMX racing earlier in the week; Bethany Shriever won Gold in women’s BMX racing and Kye Whyte men’s Silver.

Like Skateboarding, BMX Freestyle was introduced as an event in 2020 to attract a younger audience – Scootering could be next!

Highfield Park Skatepark has always welcomed skate, scooter, and BMX to the park.  The newly developed concrete skatepark will go even further as it has been developed with users in mind, by industry leaders CANVAS.  Our user group has been overwhelmed by the designs that have been put forward by Russ Heideman, of CANVAS, and have suggested tweaks and turns along the way.  The aim was always ‘all users, all levels’ and we are confident we have achieved that.

Members of the Council will see the final design at their meeting on Wednesday night.  Just as exciting is the revised timeframe which will allow our Olympic hopefuls of the future the chance to plan their routines.