Street, Women

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 had 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.

The recent World Championships had been dominated by Japan and Brazil, who won the first six places on the podium and their success was expected to continue in Tokyo. Aori Nishimura of Japan took the world title and cemented her place as gold medal favourite with Brazil’s Rayssa Leal as her nearest rival.

The standard of competition in Tokyo was extremely variable and several top skateboarders, including Nishimura, failed to put together four scoring runs of any great quality. Japan’s strength in depth still resulted in a home champion being crowned in the shape of Momiji Nishiya. At 13 years 330 days, Nishiya was the youngest Summer Olympic champion since 1960 but was older than silver medallist Rayssa Leal. At 16, bronze medallist Funa Nakayama was the veteran of the podium. This set the record for the youngest Olympic podium in Olympic history.