FEDERICO Ivan

General
SKATEBOARD CULTURE
He is cautious about the impact the Olympic Games will have on skateboarding. "At the X Games or the Vans Series, everything revolves around entertainment. It's old school. Participants are few. They are chosen. Selected. Invited. Everyone brings everything he has and puts it at the service of others. It's the perfect show. In the Olympic qualifying, I saw stress in skating for the first time. Dozens of athletes all running at the same time, to test the lines, in training sessions of 45 minutes at most. Too many people, too little time. It's the same difference between going to a high-profile music festival, full of amazing bands taking the stage, and then going to audition for a talent show, where singers of all skill levels have a minute to convince the jury not to kick them out. Skating is a parallel universe in which I have lived since I was really little. Like everything that is art, we too look to the future with curiosity, and Tokyo will certainly be an important novelty. But what makes our environment truly unique is that it is not just a sport, but a culture. A culture where history, music, street wear and tricks become one, bigger than everything else." (eurosport.it, 13 Jan 2020)

In 2019 he became the first Italian to win gold at a summer X Games after winning the skateboard park event in Minneapolis, MN, United States of America. (tokyo2020.coni.it, 01 Jan 2021; eis-team.it, 01 Jan 2020)