Skateboarding will make its return on the 2024 Paris Olympics, 4 years after the game’s debut on the Video games and, this yr, skateboarding is showcasing among the video games’ youngest rivals in addition to some celebrated veterans of the game.
The game’s youthful pattern continues from its debut 4 years in the past. Within the ladies’s park occasion in Tokyo, Japan’s Kokona Hiraki, then 12, gained silver and Britain’s Sky Brown, solely 13, took the bronze. Each athletes are set to compete at this yr’s video games.
The skateboarding occasions will happen on 4 separate days from July 27 to Aug. 7 on the Place de la Concorde in Paris.
Here is who to observe for this yr:
Thai phenom makes debut
Thailand’s Vareeraya Sukasem, solely 12, can be among the many youngest athletes competing on the Olympic Video games this yr. The preteen punched her ticket to the video games after qualifying in ladies’s road in Budapest final month.
Sukasem will face off on the street occasion towards a proficient slate of rivals together with the top-ranked Chloe Covell, 14, of Australia and a pair of 15-year-old Japanese skaters, Liz Akama and Coco Yoshizawa.
Vareeraya Sukasem of Thailand throughout coaching on the Paris 2024 Olympics, July 25, 2024.
Angelika Warmuth/Reuters
She informed the AFP earlier this month she solely started skating round 5 years in the past, when her mom took her to a skate park close to her house in Bangkok.
“In Thailand, I did not have many skate boarders as idols, so it was an opportunity to look as much as skaters from Japan, China, and the U.S.,” Sukasem informed AFP about discovering inspiration in her sport.
British trio kind unlikely group
Sky Brown, who turned Britain’s youngest ever medalist in 2020 at 13-years-old, will return for the Paris Olympics this yr. Becoming a member of her are 16-year-old Lola Tambling and 50-year-old Andy MacDonald.
Britain’s Sky Brown in motion through the ladies’s park ultimate Olympic Qualifier Sequence 2024 in Budapest, Hungary, June 23, 2024.
Marton Monus/Reuters
MacDonald, who holds the file for many X Video games medals in vert skateboarding, can be Britain’s first ever male competitor within the sport on the Olympic Video games.
Tambling is a adorned competitor who was topped British Nationwide Champion in 2022 and completed sixth on the 2023 World Championships.
US fields powerhouse group
The US could have 12 rivals in skateboarding on the Olympics in Paris, three for every occasion.
The group consists of returning Olympians Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston on the street competitors. Eaton gained bronze in Tokyo, whereas Huston completed seventh that yr. The 29-year-old Huston, who has gained 11 X-Video games road titles in his profession, is a high contender for the gold.
Nyjah Huston of Workforce United States trains throughout a Skateboarding Coaching Session at La Concorde forward of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games on July 25, 2024 in Paris, France.
Patrick Smith/Getty Pictures
Jagger Eaton of Workforce United States trains throughout a Skateboarding Coaching Session at La Concorde forward of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games on July 25, 2024 in Paris, France.
Patrick Smith/Getty Pictures
On the ladies’s facet, a bunch of promising younger rivals are making their first appearances on the Olympics: Ruby Lilley, 16, and Minna Stess, 18, will compete within the park occasion, whereas Paige Heyn, 16, makes her debut on the street occasion. Bryce Wettstein, 20, returns for the park occasion after ending sixth in Tokyo and Mariah Duran, 27, will make her second exhibiting on the street occasion after ending thirteenth 4 years in the past.
Aussie teen stars make waves
Expectations are excessive for Chloe Covell, the 14-year-old Australian star who turned the youngest road skateboarding gold medalist in X Video games historical past in 2023. Covell has additionally notched bronze and silver medals since making her X Video games debut simply two years in the past.
Chloe Covell of Workforce Australia trains throughout a Skateboarding Coaching Session at La Concorde forward of the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games on July 25, 2024 in Paris, France.
Carl Recine/Getty Pictures
She’s going to compete within the park and road occasions in Paris.
“I am undoubtedly just a little nervous as a result of it is like the most important stage, like the most important competitors,” Covell informed the Guardian Australia lately, including that she fractured two fingers whereas coaching for the video games in Los Angeles.
Additionally competing for Australia is 14-year-old Arisa Trew. Throughout Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert occasion final yr in Salt Lake Metropolis, Trew turned the primary feminine skateboarder to land a 720 (two full rotations) in competitors. In Could, she turned the primary feminine skateboarder to land a 900 (two and a half rotations). She’s going to compete within the park occasion in Paris.
