Horigo, who won his first gold medal in the men’s street skateboarding competition at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago with four high-scoring tricks, is leading the way for Japan’s elite male skateboarders to innovate.
He and his peers stand out by creating unique techniques that blend multiple styles. Many of these tricks are so difficult that competitors cannot copy them.
For example, Japanese skater Sora Shirai’s “Taxi Cane” at a recent Olympic qualifier combined two complex techniques: the “Knight” and the “Cane”. The judges gave it a score of 97.07, which was the highest score for skill in such an event at the time.
Shirai begins the technique with a difficult move – riding backwards with the same foot position as forward.
He crouched down and prepared to fly into the air.
After rotating your shoulders…
…He started spinning counterclockwise.
Then he landed face-back on the railing, the result of muscle memory and years of training.
Here, he performs the “caballerial,” a 360-degree spin invented by American skateboarder Steve Caballero.
Best of all, when he slid down, there were railings between the wheels and part of the board hung off the side, all without losing balance.
After completing his slide, he rotates 180 degrees again, using his arms to guide his body.
He lands smoothly, a detail that will boost his score. In this way he completed “Sugar Cane”. It’s all done in three seconds.
“There were a million things that could go wrong here,” but professional skateboard referee Jason Rothmeyer said the execution was about as good as one would expect.
Source: World Skating Video
It’s hard to put your finger on why Japanese skateboarders have dominated the professional skateboarding scene for the past six years or so, or why they’re so good at tricks. The Japanese team won gold medals in men’s and women’s street skateboarding in Tokyo.
“It’s like the famous definition of porn: You know it when you see it,” Jonathan Russell Clark, author of a 2022 history of the sport, said of Japan’s technical prowess Shi said.
“You can tell they’re doing something that other skaters aren’t doing, even if you can’t explain it and don’t know the technical details,” he said.
Japan’s female skaters showed similar strengths to their male skaters in the Olympic qualifying rounds: They scored high in technique but were less consistent in running. But women are less susceptible to the rule changes because they perform better than their competitors in both parts of the game.
But scoring rules introduced after the Tokyo Olympics may curb that dominance – and their ability to win medals in street skate events.
If the men’s “street” competition at the Tokyo Olympics were scored under the new Paris format, second-place finisher Kelvin Hoeffler of Brazil would win the gold medal.
Horigome could only settle for the bronze medal.
Note: If the new scoring system is used, the total score will be lower because at the Tokyo Olympics, the total score is the sum of four scores – the highest four points and five moves in the two rounds. But in the new scoring system, the total score is only the sum of three items – the highest run score and the two best stunt scores.
The street event consists of two 45-second runs and five separate obstacle course tricks. The tricks are scored based on a skater’s two best individual tricks, and risk-taking and innovation often pay off.
To perform well in the running portion, skaters must consistently perform a large number of moves—not necessarily difficult ones.
At the Tokyo Olympics, if an athlete performs well in independent skills but scores relatively poorly in running, both running scores will be automatically deleted. This is the case with Horigome.
But in Paris, one of the runs will count toward the skater’s score anyway.
World Skating, the international body that sets Olympic skateboarding rules, changed the format for the Paris Games after convening a committee to analyze the Tokyo results. Luca Basilico, director of skateboarding at World Skate, said there was a general feeling that the format did not fully reflect the full breadth and diversity of the sport.
Ian Michna, publisher of skate magazine Jenkem, said he welcomed the new format.
“Running can show a skater’s stability, skating style and give you a broader sense of their abilities,” he said.
But that could pose a challenge for Japan, as a review of results data by The New York Times shows that Japan’s performance in recent Olympic qualifying tournaments has not been particularly consistent.
The Times analysis found that even when Japanese skaters achieved their best individual moves, their running performance still lagged behind that of their top competitors, particularly skaters from Brazil and the United States.
Source: World Skating
Note: Shown are the highest running and skill scores of athletes competing in the Paris Olympics. Only scores from the Paris Olympic qualifying finals are included.
American and Brazilian male street skaters are generally stronger at running than their Japanese counterparts because they perform more tricks fluidly and continuously while crossing obstacles.
In contrast, Japanese skaters often start and end their running sequences with highly technical tricks that impress fans but risk hurting their overall results.
This was an example from the post-Olympic games held in Rome two years ago.
Horizo only completed seven moves during his run, and failed to complete his hardest move.
But American skater Nyjah Huston completed more than 10 tricks on various obstacles. Some of the tricks are relatively simple, but the overall score is high.
The change in format may not affect Japan’s performance in Paris.
World skating representative Basilico said the change was “about representing skateboarding the way we think it should be represented” rather than targeting specific athletes.
Liz Akama, a member of the Japanese women’s team, said she was not worried about the score change.
Akama said high-scoring, independent stunts are not her strong suit. The change in format allowed her to focus more on perfecting the skills she already had, including those she could use in running.
“Even though the rules have changed, everyone is adapting,” she said.
Case in point: Horigome won last month’s Olympic qualifiers in Budapest in part by showing off a diverse nine-movement similar to what Houston did in Rome in 2022.
Shirai and Japanese teammate Ginyu Onodera finished second and third.
Japanese skateboarders dominate the podium during the final Olympic qualifying event in Budapest. From left to right: Onodera Ginu, Horigo Yuuto, and Shirai Sora.
Attila Kisbenedek/AFP — Getty Images
Several experts in interviews predicted that the Japanese team will do well in Paris, as the country’s best street skaters prove their versatility in one competition after another.
Horigome also won this year’s Tampa Pro, a street event where scoring is based entirely on running.
“I think they’re going to do incredibly well again and they always will,” said Kevin Harris, a Canadian former pro with deep ties to Japan’s skateboarding scene. “They’re producing the best skateboarders on the planet.”
