In 2016, sixty years since ‘sidewalk surfers’ began forming grassroots skateboarding communities in the sunny East Coast of the USA, Skateboarding found its way onto a shortlist for inclusion in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. One year later, the IOC approved the proposed inclusion, and skateboarding officially became an Olympic Sport, adopting a new generation of young Olympians with it. 

The inclusion of Skateboarding within the games has not always been well-received. Whilst the sport is highly skilled, it is also often associated with grunge counter cultures and linked with accompanying music, street fashion and language. The culture is known for being laid-back, rather than aggressively statistical or competitive. Its representation within such a large and bureaucratic organisation, therefore, caused controversy and, among some skaters, backlash. 

Despite this, many skaters and viewers alike were stoked to see skateboarding legend Tony Hawk christen the Aomi Urban Sports Skate Park before the Street Skate competition was held on July 25th and 26th, and many already have their television boxes set to record the park event on August 4th and 5th. 

As the host country, Japan was able to enter every category. Other skaters qualified based on their world rankings and World Championship wins. Representing Team GB is our youngest-ever summer Olympian, Sky Brown, who was just 12 years old when she qualified for the games in May 2021. Having just taken the gold medal in the Women’s Park event at the X Games last month, Brown could also take gold on the Tokyo stage. Teammate Bombette Martin won the GB Skateboard Championships early this year. Having only just turned 15 years old herself, she is another young face ready to show the new Olympic sport to young skaters across the world. 

The Street competition is held, unsurprisingly, on a Street-like course designed to facilitate the creative freedom of the skaters’ usual urban environments. Included within the large, hollowed-out concrete park are various rails of different heights, curbs, walls, slopes and benches. Each skater can decide to approach the park however they wish and are judged based on the speed, difficulty, originality, timing, stability and flow of their performance. Five judges assess two 45 second runs out of 10.0 points before skaters carry out five ‘best tricks’. The highest and lowest judge’s scores are discarded, and an average of the three remaining scores are used to score each run. Upon completion, the skater’s four highest scores from the seven runs provide their overall score. This gives the skaters room for mistakes, or in many cases, falls. 

Japan’s Momiji Nishiya took the gold for the women’s street skating, making Olympic history as the second youngest summer Olympic champion. In second place was 13-year old Rayssa Leal from Brazil, and in third was 16-year-old Funa Nakayama from Japan. In a fantastic feat for Gen Z members everywhere, the average age of the street podium was just 15 years old. In the men’s category, Japan’s Yuto Horigome finished first, followed by Brazil’s Kelvin Hoefler and USA’s Jagger Eaton. 

The Park competition, in contrast, is held within a hollowed-out bowl with almost vertical edges. The steep inclines allow for skaters to perform impressive gravity-defying mid-air tricks. Within the park competition, each skater performs three 45 second runs scored out of 100.00 by five judges. Again, the highest and lowest judges score is removed and a mean average calculated out of the remaining three. The skaters’ best run, out of the three, counts as their qualifying score. 

Only time will tell who will reach the Park Podium, but in the women’s category, Japan’s Misugu Okamoto and Sakura Yosozumi are ranking high. In the men’s category, USA’s Heimana Reynolds and Cory Juneau are ones to watch. 

At times like this, only Tony Hawk could encapsulate the emotions of excitement and optimism going into these inaugural games, as he says: ‘A whole new generation will get to experience skateboarding with genuine public support and meaningful opportunity. I predict it will be one of the highlights from all of the Olympic Games coverage this year. And I’m here for it,’ and we are too. 

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