Great editing, Fox.

Most sports are judged by whatever international body exists to judge that sport, rather than the Olympics bringing in their own people and taking over the show. But, it will be interesting to see with skating what they do, when there doesn't (to my knowledge) exist some International Skateboarding Federation. Quite possibly they'll just go with the most established professional skateboarding organisation, which I guess is just SLS.

And yeah you could argue that SLS favours a particular style. Lots of 'perfectly' landed tricks in quick succession. It's not what I find entertaining to watch. I like watching a slightly sloppy skater, someone who looks like they're holding on to the trick by the skin of their teeth and still making it look good.

You brought up figure skating - there's an interesting podcast about a figure skater who 'broke the mold', skating in a wildly different way to the established norm, but the judges were very stuck in their ways and she never won any gold medals. http://www.radiolab.org/story/edge/

What's your opinion on how olympic snowboarding is judged?

A little late with the reply, but that's another big reason. What I fear is the emphasis on technicality that is seen in all other Olympic trick sports (diving, gymnastics, etc.) that could really undermine the style that goes into one's skating. Halfpipe snowboarding was mentioned below, and while style is a big part of time spent in the air, all riders are confined to the same sort of routine which makes it easy to judge for tech (most corked rotations). Skating is a different beast, especially street, and I think it'll be really difficult to give due respect to a rider's style on a full-blown international stage (i.e. most novice viewers may appreciate the tech and be dissappointed if a more fluid, stylish skater one).