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2020 Summer Olympic Games
23 July – 8 August 2021
Tokyo, Japan
Skateboarding prodigy Nyjah Huston could well be the breakout star of the Tokyo 2020, with the 26-year-old starting as the favourite to win the Men’s Street competition when his sport makes its official debut at the Summer Olympic Games.
The Skateboarding events will be Men’s and Women’s Park and Street tournaments. The events will be held at the Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo on July 25 and 26, as well as August 4 and 5.
Huston is the highest-paid Skateboard athlete in the world and boasts 16 Gold Medals from various World Championship and X Games events from 2011 onward. He hopes to use the Olympics as a platform to bring more attention to Skateboarding.
"I'm stoked that it's finally coming to the biggest stage, especially because skateboarding is already so worldwide," Huston explained. "I think it's good for us, and I think it's good for skateboarding as a whole."
He added, "Skateboarding is so fun to watch as far as competitions go. So I'm excited for more people to get exposed to it, and hopefully fall in love with it, which will bring a whole new group of fans to the sport."
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In the Street competition, which Huston will feature in, athletes execute tricks such as flips and grinds on a course replicating a street environment with stairs, curbs and rails. The park event will see skaters compete on a course inspired by the early drained swimming pools used by the sport's pioneers, with different types of half-pipes, ramps and spines.
Huston’s main rivals for Gold will be from Japanese riders Yuto Horigome and Sora Shirai, as well as Brazilian Kelvin Hoefler, Portugal’s Gustavo Ribeiro and American Jake Ilardi. As for the Women’s Street competition, Brazilians Pamela Rosa, Rayssa Leal and Leticia Bufoni will be hoping to keep Japan’s Aori Nishimura off the podium.
“Brazil doesn’t have a proper track like it does here in the United States. I didn’t need it, all the athletes have to come here and then go to Tokyo,” said Rosa in the build-up to the Games.
“Why don’t we have our training centre in Brazil and leave there With full energy, with everyone cheering and straight to Tokyo? I guess what it’s lacking, a little more structure and a little more help from Brazil.”
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