Skateboarding: Japan’s 14-year-old Coco Yoshizawa wins gold
Yoshizawa’s 74.42 was good enough to give her the gold medal in Tokyo 2020 at only 10 years of age.
Once a subculture sport emblematic of countercultural movements, skateboarding has now skated its way onto one of the grandest stages of global sport with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) including it as a “core sport” in the Olympic programme from Los Angeles 2028.
The men’s street skateboarding competition, due to take place at the Place de la Concorde in the historic heart of Paris, was postponed until Monday due to rain overnight, organisers said. Yuto Horigome of Japan is defending his skateboarding street crown as he aims to fend off challengers including Nyjah Huston of the United States and France’s Aurelien Giraud.
おめでとうございます
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14 years old and already a gold medalist ✨
Coco Yoshizawa is your new Olympic champion in skateboard street 👏🇯🇵
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14 ans et déjà en or ✨
Coco Yoshizawa est votre nouvelle championne Olympique de skateboard street 👏🇯🇵#Paris2024
@WorldSkate_news… pic.twitter.com/svFu7CxTAr— Paris 2024 (@Paris2024) July 28, 2024
But today Sunday 28 of June, over at La Concorde Urban Park, after yesterday’s postponement of the men’s street event, the women are having better luck under the bright Parisian sunshine. Japan’s Yoshizawa Coco was the top qualifier for this evening’s final, scoring 258.92 points from her best run plus her best two tricks. Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Rayssa Leal of Brazil scored 241.43 and qualified in seventh.
The qualifiers for today were: Yoshizawa, Liz Akama (JPN), Cui Chenxi (CHN), Chloe Covell (AUS), Nakayama Funa (JPN), Paige Heyn (USA), Leal, and Poe Pinson (USA), who scraped into the final with her last trick.
“I didn’t really expect to make it, but it’s crazy that I did,” Pinson tells Olympics.com. “I feel like the past two years I’ve just dealt with so much injury and stuff, I’m just really happy to able to skate and it’s also crazy to be here, I never thought I’d go to the Olympics, it’s wild.”
É BRONZEEEEE! 🥉
NÃO HÁ PALAVRAS PRA DESCREVER RAYSSA LEAL.
ELA MEDALHOU NOVAMENTE. É BRONZE PARA RAYSSA! #Medley
#TimeBrasil
#JogosOlímpicos
#Paris2024
pic.twitter.com/igXN1wUdUX— Time Brasil (@timebrasil) July 28, 2024
The skateboarding venue was also packed with Brazilian fans, and they’ve been given loads to cheer to Rayssa Leal who has won bronze in the women’s street. She scored 253.37 points, behind a Japanese one-two of Yoshizawa Coco, the top qualifier from prelims, and Liz Akama.
Yoshizawa scored 272.75 from her best run and two best tricks – with a top trick score of 96.49, the highest of the final. Akama totalled 265.95.