Skateboarding at Tokyo Olympics: Preview, Guide, Schedule, Key Players

Skateboarding is one of the five new sports to make its debut at the Tokyo Olympics 2021. Skateboarding is currently governed by the World Skate. World Skate received its International Olympic Committee (IOC) affiliation in 2017. The addition of skateboarding in the Olympics is part of the IOC's attempt to bring the games closer to the urban youth. Skateboarding featured at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China.

​Preview

World Skate has hosted several qualification skateboarding events for the Olympic games in the past two years. The bi-annual World Skate games were held in Nanjing China, in 2017 and Barcelona in, 2019 with aggregate participation of over 7000 skateboarding athletes. A total of 80 skateboarders have sealed their places in the Tokyo Olympics 2021.

There are 20 athletes in each of the skateboarding four events, with 3 making way through the World Championships, 16 from World Rankings and 1 mandatory representation from hosts, Japan. A maximum of six men and six women are allowed from each nation from qualification events in skateboarding, but with a cap of a maximum of three athletes in each gender per event.

Guide

​Skateboarding will feature four events: Park (Men/Women) and Street (Park/Men).

Street Skateboarding is held on a street-like course featuring stairs, handrails, curbs, benches, walls and slopes. Judges will score each athlete on the basis of tricks, height, speed, originality, execution and diversity of the moves.

Park Skateboarding features a dome-shaped bowl resembling large dish cavities. The central area of the skateboarding bowl takes an eventual steep on all four sides which allows the Skateboarders to execute mid-air stunts. Judges will mark the athletes on the basis of difficulty and balance of the skates upon the landing surface.

Schedule

​Skateboarding events will be hosted at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo. The events will kick-start on July 25 with the street events with the park finals scheduled to be wrapped up by August 5.

1. Men's Street (Prelims/Finals) - 25 July

2. Women's Street (Prelims/Finals) - 26 July

3. Women's Park (Prelims/Finals) - 4 August

4. Men's Park (Prelims/Finals) - 5 August

All the events will start at 05.30 AM IST (9 AM Local Time) and finish by 10.25 AM IST (01.55 PM Local Time).

Key Players

Street Skateboarding

1. Nyjah Huston (Men/USA): One of the greatest of the sport, Huston has been nominated for the Thrasher Magazine 'Skater of the Year'.

2. Yuto Horigome (Men/Japan): The home crowd will pin their hopes on Horigame who finished runners up in the World Skate Championships in 2019.

3. Leticia Bufoni (Women/Brazil): Bufoni will be a favourite to win the Olympic Gold after her World Skate Championships triumph in 2015.

Honourable Mentions: Pamela Rosa (Women/Brazil), Rayssa Leal (Women/Brazil), Aori Nishimura (Women/Japan), Candy Jacobs (Women/Netherlands)

Park Skateboarding

1. Sky Brown (Women/Great Britain): The 12-year old has been making it to the headlines regularly with her performance in 2020 and will be a key skateboarder to watch out for.

2. Lizzie Armanto (Women/Finland): Raised in the USA, Armanto will compete with Brown, representing Finland in the Tokyo Olympics.

3. Heimana Ronalds (Men/USA): Ronalds was ranked world number 1 at the end of 2020 and will be a favourite to win the Olympic Gold in Tokyo Olympics.

Honourable Mentions: Tom Schaar (Men/USA)