Street, Men

Street is a discipline that focuses on flat ground tricks, grinds, slides and aerials within urban environments and, as such, obstacles like handrails, stairs and other street furniture are an integral part of the competitive sport. Each entrant has two 45 second runs in which to perform five individual tricks. The total score is taken by adding the four highest scores from the seven elements. The eight top highest scoring individuals qualified for the final.

Nyjah Huston of the USA, the four-time World Champion, was considered a long-range favourite for gold but he suffered a setback before the Olympics when beaten to the world title in June by Japan’s Yuto Horigome. Huston qualified well but could only successfully land one of his five tricks, which put him out of contention.

In contrast, Horigome’s scores were entirely reliant on his single tricks. Of the nine scores above nine points, the Japanese star scored four of them to clinch the inaugural Olympic skateboard title. Kelvin Hoefler of Brazil and Jagger Eaton of the USA performed consistently throughout the final to win silver and bronze.