Action sports’ inclusion into the Olympics: Power, politics and policy in the development of breaking and skateboarding in South Korea

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has added action sports to the Olympics to attract younger viewers and rejuvenate its aging audience. Action sports, characterised by risk, unconventiona movement, and style, and a Do-It-Yourself ethos, have usually developed informally. Therefore, their integration into the Olympics posed challenges, complicating their community dynamics and evolution. This PhD study aims to examine the formalisation processes of action sports in South Korea, focusing on participants’ experiences of these changes and the Olympic inclusion’s impact on the development of these new sports.

A two-case study approach was employed, with qualitative methodology, comprising 17 semi-structured interviews and document analysis, to explore the evolution of two actions sports: breaking and skateboarding. The study identified significant changes in these action sports following their Olympic inclusion, analysed through three key processes: sportisation, institutionalisation, and professionalisation. First, the results of the sportisation process indicate that while sportisation facilitates the transformation of sport-like activities into recognised sports, this transition often leads to the loss of the activities’ original values and results in cultural divisions. Second, institutionalisation transforms self-organised breaking and skateboarding groups into more structured and formal organisations. However, these groups often struggle with legitimacy, as they navigate the challenges posed by institutional logics. Third, Olympic-driven professionalisation has advanced the organisational, systemic, and occupational aspects of breaking and skateboarding. Nevertheless, participants in these sports faced cultural challenges that hinder the full realisation of professionalisation.

The findings reveal that breaking and skateboarding in Korea have evolved from informal activities to recognised competitive sports. This evolution has led to power struggles between action sports communities and established sports federations, resulting in internal conflicts as groups vie for legitimacy. Moreover, while action sports have professionalised and achieved high-performance levels, this has often come at the expense of grassroots development.

This study concludes that although the Olympic inclusion and the resulting formalisation processes have developed breaking and skateboarding as sports, they have impeded what could have been a more authentic development of action sports, potentially diluting their subcultures, identities, and ethos. This research is significant as it presents the first comprehensive formalisation examination of the impact of Olympic inclusion on action sports within a national context. The findings contribute to understanding the broader impact of Olympic inclusion on both action sports and national sport development policies.