Horigome, who received the primary gold in Olympic males’s avenue skateboarding in Tokyo three years in the past by touchdown 4 high-scoring methods, leads a category of elite Japanese male skate boarders who thrive on innovation.
He and his friends distinguish themselves by creating distinctive methods that merge a wide range of types. Many of those methods are so tough that opponents are unable to duplicate them.
In a single instance, the Japanese skater Sora Shirai’s “cab sugarcane” at a current Olympic qualifier fused two intricate methods, a “caballerial” and a “sugarcane.” The judges gave it a rating of 97.07, on the time the best for a trick at such an occasion.
Shirai begins the trick with a tough maneuver — using backward with the identical foot place as going ahead.
He crouches as he prepares to go airborne.
After rotating his shoulders …
… he begins to spin counterclockwise.
Then he lands on the rail going through backward, a perform of muscle reminiscence and years of coaching.
Right here he finishes a “caballerial,” a sort of 360-degree spin invented by the American skateboarder Steve Caballero.
To prime it off, he slides down with the rail between his wheels and a part of his board hanging off to the facet, all with out dropping his stability.
After finishing the slide, he spins into one other 180-degree flip, utilizing his arms to information his physique.
He lands easily, a element that may increase his rating. With that he completes the “sugarcane.” It was all carried out inside three seconds.
“There’s 1,000,000 issues that may go fallacious right here,” however the execution is about pretty much as good as one might anticipate, stated Jason Rothmeyer, knowledgeable skateboarding decide.
Supply: Video from World Skate
It’s exhausting to pinpoint why Japanese skaters have dominated skilled skateboarding over the previous six or so years, or why they’re so good at methods. Workforce Japan clinched the gold medal in each women and men’s avenue skateboarding in Tokyo.
“It’s just like the well-known definition of pornography: You understand it whenever you see it,” Jonathan Russell Clark, the writer of a 2022 historical past of the game, stated of Workforce Japan’s technical prowess.
“You possibly can simply inform that they’re doing one thing that the opposite skaters aren’t doing, even in case you can’t clarify it and don’t know in regards to the technical specifics,” he stated.
Japanese feminine skaters have proven related strengths at Olympic qualifiers as the lads: They rating excessive in methods however are much less constant in runs. However the girls are much less weak to the rule adjustments, as they carry out higher than their opponents in each components of the competitors.
However a scoring change launched after the Tokyo Olympics might curb that dominance – and their capacity to win medals on the street skateboarding occasion.
If the lads’s “avenue” competitors on the Tokyo Olympics had been scored utilizing the brand new Paris format, Kelvin Hoefler of Brazil, who completed second, would have received gold.
Horigome would have needed to accept bronze.
Notice: The totals are decrease if scored with the brand new system as a result of, on the Tokyo Video games, the overall rating was the sum of 4 scores — the 4 highest of any of the 2 runs and 5 methods. However within the new scoring system, the overall rating is the sum of solely three — the best run rating and the 2 finest trick scores.
The road occasion consists of two 45-second runs and 5 standalone methods over an impediment course. The methods are scored based mostly on a skater’s two finest standalone methods, and threat and innovation are sometimes rewarded.
To ace the run part, a skater should land numerous methods – not essentially tough ones – constantly.
On the Tokyo Video games, if an athlete did effectively on standalone methods however scored comparatively poorly on runs, each run scores had been robotically erased. That’s what occurred in Horigome’s case.
However in Paris, a type of runs will rely towards a skateboarder’s rating it doesn’t matter what.
World Skate, a world physique that units Olympic skateboarding guidelines, modified the format for Paris after convening a committee to investigate outcomes from Tokyo. The final feeling was that the format didn’t sufficiently seize the game’s full breadth and variety, stated Luca Basilico, World Skate’s skateboarding director.
Ian Michna, the writer of the skate journal Jenkem, stated he welcomed the brand new format.
“A run exhibits how constant the skater is, how they skate stylistically, and provides you a a lot wider view of what they’re able to,” he stated.
However which will pose challenges for Workforce Japan as a result of its runs throughout current Olympic qualifiers weren’t particularly constant, a New York Instances evaluation of outcomes information suggests.
At the same time as Japanese skaters landed the perfect standalone methods, the Instances evaluation discovered, their run scores lagged behind these of their prime opponents, notably these from Brazil and the US.
Supply: World Skate
Notes: Proven are the best run and trick scores of athletes who will compete within the Paris Olympics. Solely scores on the finals of the Paris Olympic qualifiers are included.
American and Brazilian male avenue skaters had been usually stronger than their Japanese counterparts on runs as a result of they executed extra methods, fluidly and repeatedly, throughout the impediment course.
In contrast, Japanese skaters typically started and ended their run sequences with high-skill methods that impressed followers however risked damaging their general scores.
Right here’s an instance from a post-Olympic competitors in Rome two years in the past.
Horigome landed solely seven methods throughout his run, and did not land his most tough one.
However Nyjah Huston, a embellished American skater, landed over 10 methods throughout a wide range of obstacles. A few of these methods had been comparatively straightforward, however his general rating was greater.
It’s potential that the format change received’t have an effect on Workforce Japan’s efficiency in Paris.
Basilico, the World Skate consultant, stated that the change had been “carried out for the sake of representing skateboarding the way in which we consider it ought to be represented,” and to not goal particular athletes.
Liz Akama, a member of the Japan girls’s workforce, stated she was not apprehensive in regards to the scoring change.
Akama stated that high-scoring, standalone methods are usually not her forte. The format change has allowed her to focus extra on perfecting methods she will be able to already land, together with ones that could possibly be utilized in her runs.
“Though the foundations have modified, everyone seems to be adapting,” she stated.
Working example: Horigome received the Olympic qualifier in Budapest final month partly by delivering a various, nine-trick run that regarded much like Huston’s 2022 efficiency in Rome.
Shirai and a Japanese teammate, Ginwoo Onodera, completed second and third.
On the remaining Olympics qualifier, in Budapest, Japanese skate boarders dominated the podiums. From left to proper: Ginwoo Onodera, Yuto Horigome and Sora Shirai.
Attila Kisbenedek/Agence France-Presse — Getty Pictures
A number of consultants predicted in interviews that Workforce Japan would excel in Paris as a result of the nation’s finest avenue skaters have confirmed their versatility in competitors after competitors.
Horigome additionally received this 12 months’s Tampa Professional, a avenue occasion the place the scoring relies solely on runs.
“I believe they’ll do extremely effectively once more, they usually at all times will,” stated Kevin Harris, a Canadian ex-pro who has deep ties to Japan’s skateboarding group. “They’re producing the perfect skate boarders on the planet.”
