US' Mariah Duran competes in the women's street skateboarding prelims during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Concorde in Paris on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Kirill Kudryavtsev / AFP)
In an effort to appeal to younger audiences, the International Olympic Committee in 2014 began allowing the organizers of each Games to include provisional new events for the Olympics they host. Skateboarding was among the new sports included by Japanese Olympic officials for the Tokyo Games in 2021, and it returns at this year’s Paris Olympics.
There are two skateboarding competitions for both men and women: park and street. Here’s what you need to know.
How does the Olympic park skateboarding competition work? - The 22 skaters in the park competition will navigate a course that resembles a bowl or an empty swimming pool. Skaters will launch themselves upward off the sides of the walls during their 45-second runs, and a panel of five judges will assess the height, difficulty and variety of the skater’s tricks, plus the skater’s speed and their use of the course’s entire surface and obstacles.
In the preliminary round, each skater gets three 45-second runs, and each will be scored on a scale of 0 to 100 by the judges. The highest and lowest scores for each run are thrown out, and the remaining three are averaged. A skater’s best score of the three runs will be the one that counts as their qualifying score, and the top eight advance to the final.
In the final round, skaters again get three 45-second runs, and their best score of the three runs again will be their qualifying score. The top three scorers will be medalists.
US' Poe Pinson competes in the women's street skateboarding final during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at La Concorde in Paris on July 28, 2024. (Photo by Odd Andersen / AFP)
How does the Olympic street skateboarding competition work? - In street skateboarding, 22 initial competitors navigate a street-like course featuring stairs, handrails, curbs, benches, walls and slopes, using those obstacles to perform tricks that are scored by a five-judge panel. In each round, skaters perform two 45-second runs and five tricks, and each run and trick is judged on a scale of 0 to 100 based on difficulty, execution and variety.
A skater’s top run and top two tricks are used as their qualifying score, and the top eight from the prelims advance to the final, where the process repeats. The top three scorers in the final are medalists.
Skaters may ask to redo their tricks if they aren’t satisfied with their first attempts. They can repeat the same trick without penalty.
Where will the Olympic skateboarding competition take place? - The Olympic skateboarding competition will take place at a temporary venue constructed at the Place de la Concorde, the largest public square in Paris located at the eastern end of the Champs-Élysées. The venue also will host 3x3 basketball, break dancing and BMX freestyle.
How do athletes qualify for Olympic skateboarding? - Athletes qualify based on world rankings over an extended time period; for these Games, the skaters began accruing qualifying points in June 2022. Each nation can have up to 12 skaters - three men and three women in both park and street.
Who are the American hopefuls in Olympic skateboarding? - The United States will field a full 12-skater team at the Paris Games: Gavin Bottger, Tate Carew and Tom Schaar (men’s park); Minna Stess, Bryce Wettstein and Ruby Lilley (women’s park); Nyjah Huston, Jagger Eaton and Chris Joslin (men’s street); and Paige Heyn, Mariah Duran and Poe Pinson (women’s street). Eaton was one of two American medalists at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021; he won bronze in men’s street.
