An Australian skateboarder in action.

Like most of the world I am watching the Olympics. There are sports that I know well and have participated in, athletics, tennis and soccer, there are others I know but haven’t participated in, equestrian, diving and gymnastics but there is one I don’t know anything about, skateboarding.

Australia has some excellent skateboarders so I watched it but didn’t understand the scoring except the 0s for falls. I could make a judgement, based on the number of slides, turns and balance but it wasn’t always right.

There is a need for explanation of the probable difficulty as with the diving where you were told what moves it was composed of. We want a factual commentary, not a colourful one as it is always more interesting if you understand what is happening.

Also, could someone explain how ‘Solo Synchronized Swimming’ (84-92) worked?

Dennis Fitzgerald,

Melbourne, Australia