■Paris Olympics™ Men’s Street Skateboarding Final (Japan time 30th, Place de la Concorde, Paris)

In the men’s street final, Yuto Horigome (25, Mitsui Sumitomo DS Asset Management) achieved his long-cherished dream of winning his second consecutive Olympic gold medal. After the “Run” he was provisionally in fourth place, but made a huge comeback with two “Best Trick” attempts. In the last, final attempt, he scored in the 97s, for a total of 281.14 points. He achieved the feat of winning the gold medal following the Tokyo Olympics, just “0.1 points” behind second place.

Sora Shirai (22, Murasaki Sports), who participated in the second consecutive tournament, unfortunately finished in fourth place, just one step away from making it onto the podium.

At the Paris Olympic qualifying tournament, Horimai was in danger of being eliminated from the team, but he made a huge comeback and won the final match, earning a ticket to Paris at the last minute. The first champion who won the Tokyo Olympics shook off the pressure of winning consecutive championships and achieved his long-cherished dream.

Horimai, who had qualified in 4th place and said, “I want to push my limits in the finals,” was true to his word and went all out from his first run. He packed in a lot of tricks and showed off an artistic run, earning him a good start with 89.90 points. Shirai, who followed, also showed a perfect run from his first run, earning a high score of 90.11 points. Horimai made some mistakes in the second half of his second run, but he still placed 4th provisionally and moved on to the Best Trick in the second half.

After the run, American “undisputed champion” N. Houston (29) was provisionally in the lead with a score of 93.37 points in the second run. J. Eaton (23) was in second place, followed by Shirai and Horimai.

◆ Gold medal for both men and women in street competition

In the “ultra-high level” battle, Horimai focused from the first Best Trick run and scored 94.16 points. However, Shirai, Houston, and Eaton also held their own from the first run, scoring in the 90s, and Horimai is provisionally in third place. He is 2.10 points behind the leader. To turn the tables, he needs to score another high point.

For his second run, Horimai attempted the move that had led him to a come-from-behind victory in the final Olympic qualifying round, but failed. He also fell on the landing of his third and fourth runs, putting him in provisional seventh place with just one run left, and on the brink of collapse. However, on his final run, he finally succeeded in a highly difficult move, earning him his highest score of the day, 97.08 points, and the entire stadium stood on its feet. Afterwards, Shirai, Houston, and Eaton each attempted their fifth runs, but were unable to beat Horimai’s total score, and Horimai made a stunning comeback and won his second consecutive title. Shirai scored in the 90s for both the run and best trick, but finished in fourth place, just short of the Americans.

The previous day, 14-year-old Yoshizawa Koi (Koko, ACT SB STORE) won the gold medal in the women’s street competition, and 15-year-old Akama Rinne (Rizu, first-year student at Tohoku High School) won the silver medal, and the Japanese team made a big splash every day. In the street competition, both men and women won the top spot in two consecutive Olympics, the Tokyo and Paris Olympics.

[Men’s Street Final Results]
Gold) Yuto Horigome 281.14 points
Silver) J. Eaton 281.04 points
Bronze) N. Houston 279.38 points
4th place) Sora Shirai 278.12 points