This weekend, from Friday to Sunday, the sport of the future takes the banks of the Manzanares with Madrid Urban Sports. An opportunity to discover the BMX, scooter, roller freestyle, breaking, 3×3 basket or skateboarding. He will be attended by several of the best athletes in each specialty, such as Daniel Dhers or Kelvin Hoefler, medalists in BMX and skate in Tokyo 2020. And also the Spanish skater Danny Leon, one of the most recognizable faces in this sport worldwide. At the age of nine, the man from Mosto saw a skatepark built in front of his house. “He threw me a lot more football,” he clarifies, but the fact that from his window he contemplated the new skate park in the neighborhood made him take a board and try that new sport.
Coincidences of life, he fell in love, and made friends who ranged from 20 to 40 years. It did not matter. Skate united them. “That independence that skateboarding gave me, that it was all thanks to you or your fault, in the end I liked that effort, which is my own and very independent, much more than football”, remember.
The moment came when she had to decide whether to focus on her studies and abandon her passion or put her books away and choose the board. He took this second exit and managed to professionalize. “You can make a living from skateboarding but it is very difficult. There is not so much visibility, not so much support,” he says. Thanks to social networks and, mainly, to the brands that sponsor him, the Madrilenian can dedicate himself exclusively to his passion.
“We do not have the skateparks that we would need to be at the Olympic level,” says León, one of the four representatives in Tokyo 2020. “I am already surprised that he was able to reach the Games with the facilities that exist. We have very bad skateparks at the Olympic level, “he complains.
Despite the precariousness, Danny León feels “very happy and proud” to have been one of the faces that has seen the premiere of this sport in the Games. Between the permits to sign, the tests and the strict regulations, Danny admits that he suffered “a bit of stress”, but when he got to the track he forgot everything. Only se focused on skating in a skatepark to which he raved about praise and to which he wishes to return: “The pity it gives me to come back from Tokyo is, apart from not having visited the city because of COVID, it is not being able to stay to skate there “.
He returned from Tokyo with a ninth place under his arm and decided to recover the time that the pandemic deprived him. A fall that caused a tear of the cruciate ligament and the meniscus allows him to give only small exhibits. But he will not miss the appointment with Madrid.
MADRID URBAN SPORTS
From Friday to Sunday (free admission) Madrid Urban Sports is held in Madrid Río-Matadero. With Olympic sports such as BMX, skate, 3×3 basketball and breaking (break dance), which will premiere in Paris 2024. And urban culture (trap, rap, graffiti …). All the information on the web.