Horigome Retains Men’s Street Skateboarding Title; Claims Gold After Nailing Risky Trick

By Takao Inoue / Yomiuri Shimbun Sports Writer

17:34 JST, July 30, 2024

Yuto Horigome, the reigning Olympic men’s street skateboarding champion, showed his true colors as he faced the possibility of missing the podium, pulling off a flawless trick at the final time of asking to snatch gold.

Horigome’s best run and two best single tricks gave him a total score of 281.14, just one-tenth of a point ahead of U.S skateboarder Jagger Eaton.

With only one single trick score recorded after four attempts, Horigome had fallen to seventh place. As he started his fifth and final attempt, he thought: “Whether I laugh or cry, this is the final moment. I won’t leave any regrets.”

It was the big one — the trick he had only successfully executed once in official competition — that he chose for his final attempt. He pulled off a flawless nollie 270 to noseblunt slide. This involves spinning 270 degrees in midair and landing with the nose of the board onto a rail.

He screamed after the trick, unusual for the typically calm skater, while the spectators were sent into a frenzy.

The trick earned him 97.08 points, the highest single score by any skater in the competition.

The same trick won Horigome the Olympics Qualifier Series in June and gave him his opportunity to defend the gold. Horigome had since failed several times to pull the trick off both in the run up to the competition and during it. The repeated spills had caused his waist to become red and swollen. His body was at its breaking point, he said.

In his teens, Horigome moved to the United States and has become the top skater, despite being repeatedly told he had no chance to win there. At the Tokyo Olympics, too, he had performed a comeback to claim victory.

Horigome said, “I was able to believe that just 1% chance, and myself.” The competition was a true testament to his skateboarding career, during which he has repeatedly overcome adversity. He has become the first skateboarder in Olympic history to win back-to-back gold medals.