On May 20th through the 23rd Dew Tour will host this year’s only global olympic qualifying event in Des Moines, IA. This will take place in Lauridsen Skate Park which is 88,000 square ft located along the Principal River Walk.
This past Wednesday, May 19th Members of the USA National team. Got to sit down to answer a couple of questions after a long pause.
“Even prior to Covid-19 Dew Tour had an eye on Des Moines. Des Moines was planning to construct the nation’s largest skatepark. Also Des Moines is a loyal Mountain Dew Consumer base” said Courtney Gresik Dew Tour VP and General Manager of Dew Tour
Including the given circumstances of Covid-19 Dew Tour was postponed. Dew Tour actively seeked out when they would have their next event. Catch Des Moines reached out to the Dew Tour team; then the team made a trip out to Des Moines during the final moments of construction of Lauridsen Skatepark.
The skateboarding story it took to advocate for this venue truly shows the community in Des Moines is remarkable. This in result helped Dew Tour choose Des Moines, IA as it is an Olympic rated park.
Skateboarding is a new sport for the olympics and more than 300 of the world’s top athletes will be participating for the Dew Tour title and as well competing for their country olympic skateboarding team.
“This will be the last chance that anyone can earn points that gets them into the olympics as far for street discipline we have one more event in Italy in a week” said Matt Mulligan judging and competition development manager for World Skate
Skateboarding for a long time has not been a part of the olympics, through the conference Gary Ream who is the World Skateboarding Commission Chairman spoked during the conference that getting skateboarding in the olympics has always been a strong desire for these athletes.
“Dew tour which has been around for 16 years and I remember the days because I was a part of the initial meeting on this.” Said Ream
Ream continues “It’s sort of a proud moment to have somebody participating in skateboarding all these years to have a part in the olympic movement. So it’s very important.”
Many of the athletes also agreed and also recognized Lauridsen Skate Park as being important in coming back.
“The really cool thing is they leave the course behind to grow the skate scene. I am really excited to start the year off with this.” said Mariah Duran who is a Mountain Dew Athlete and ranked #1 in the U.S
Duran continues “It’s just nice to come to this point where it is like this is the first world event after a year we had in 2020 ”
Photo by Nixson Benitez / Hola Iowa
An event with fans will bring the best of everybody and this will bring a whole other side of skaters. Competitors have seen what it was like to compete with no fans and that energy.
DaShawn Jordan who is a 2021 U.S Skateboarding National Champion mentioned during the Press Conference “Coming off the long break it kind of was a blessing in disguise and it gave people time to spend time on the mental aspect and regroup and it is very empowering”
Ream believes this big win will stimulate other cities to advocate for skateparks and recognize the importance of Skateboarding for the Youth.
“This is definitely one of the best Skateparks that I have probably ever been in the whole world” said Mulligan
Many of the panelists are also excited to see future Olympic talent come out of Des Moines,IA and see other cities to start advocating and funding skateparks in their community.
With the start of the summer this event will offer free tickets on DewTour.com to a limited number of fans. To stay tune to this event viste DewTour.com for more information including their Facebook and YouTube for the live stream
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