SKATEBOARD LEGEND TONY HAWK GIVES HIS VERDICT ON 2016 LAUREUS ACTION SPORTS NOMINEES
- On Mick Fanning: ‘I think I would put him up for a Nomination long before he had the fight with the shark’
- On Chloe Kim: ‘Snowboarding resonates with the young, kids take notice’
- On Bob Burnquist: ‘He keeps pushing the limits year after year’
- Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony in Berlin on April 18
- Laureus editorial content is available for media use provided credit is given; for example.....’Tony Hawk speaking to Laureus.com’
BERLIN, March 22, 2016 – Skateboard legend and Laureus World Sports Academy Member Tony Hawk has welcomed one of the most intriguing line-ups ever for the Laureus World Action Sports Award. In an exclusive interview on Laureus.com, Hawk said “I feel like Action Sports are growing faster than most sports these days. There is so much interest.”
The eventual winner will be announced at the Laureus World Sports Awards Ceremony in Berlin on April 18, and Hawk had high praise for the six Nominees, who have been selected by a panel of the world’s media.
Of fellow skateboarder Bob Burnquist, aged 39, who won the Award in 2002 and won his 30th career X-Games medal in 2015, Hawk said: “Bob keeps pushing limits year after year, and in terms of height and difficulty and distance. He's really on a different level of what we consider possible, so it's great to see him in there again. He's getting up there in age, too, but he's not slowing down.”
And on surfer Mick Fanning, who survived a shark attack last year, Hawk added: “I think I would put him up for a nomination long before he had the fight with the shark, so he was already well established and one of the best surfers we've seen today. I am honoured to have him in the Action Sport list.”
Burnquist and Fanning have been competing for many years, but Hawk was also full of praise for snowboarder Chloe Kim, who won Super Pipe in the Winter X-Games at the age of 14. “It’s exciting to know that there is new blood coming up and someone like her has the ability to become the world champion at such a young age.”
Kim was named in US magazine Time’s list of the top 30 teenagers in 2015, across all areas of activity, not just sport, and Hawk said: “That didn’t surprise me. Snowboarding resonates with young people. The kids take notice.”
On other Nominees, Hawk said: “I’ve seen some video clips of [mountain biker] Rachel Atherton and she looks incredible, a well-deserved Nomination for sure. Adriano de Souza [world surfing champion] has proved himself amidst the greats. I know when he beat Kelly Slater that was a big shock in the surfing world. That’s exciting.”
And he applauded the Nomination of Ironman world champion Jan Frodeno. “Our category is pretty wide reaching. I tend to gravitate towards the artistic types of sport where it’s more self-expression. I don’t think I’ll be doing an Ironman myself, but his Nomination is well-deserved.”
Hawk said of his role as a Laureus Academy Member: “I'm happy to represent skateboarding and Action Sports in general in the Laureus Academy. I want to be able to include them in all of the Laureus considerations, in the Awards and in the charity work. I feel a great responsibility to represent our sports.”
He is also a keen supporter of seeing skateboarding in the Olympics, possibly as early as Tokyo 2020, and he thinks the Olympics will benefit as much as the sport.
He said: “There's some validation in it in terms of being recognised on that scale. But the flip side of that in my eyes is that the Olympics need skateboarding, maybe more than skateboarding needs the Olympics at this point. They need a sport like ours in their Summer Games to keep the young viewers interested. The way that snowboarding brought the excitement level back to the Winter Games, I believe skateboarding will do that to the Summer Games.”
PRINT and ONLINE – to access the transcript of the full Tony Hawk interview go to:
https://www.laureus.com/content/tony-hawk-interview