Skateboarding: Battle for Olympic spots heating up among Japanese

SUITA, Japan (Kyodo) — Earning an Olympic berth is never easy task, even for reigning world street skateboarding champions, especially if they are Japanese and must fend off a long list of talented youngsters for one of just three possible spots.

“The level of Japanese skateboarders is high and the real battle begins here,” reigning world champion Sora Shirai said Friday in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.

Twenty street skateboarders will compete in both the men’s and women’s fields at the Paris Olympics this summer. The Olympic spots will be chosen from among 44 athletes competing in each field in the final qualifiers, in Shanghai in May and Budapest in June.

Japan can potentially earn up to three men’s and three women’s berths in Paris, based on the Olympic qualifying rankings.

Shirai, who won the men’s title at December’s world championships, was attending a promotional event for Saturday’s opening of the Murasaki Park LaLaport Expocity, one of the largest skateboarding parks in the country, with women’s world champion Yumeka Oda and Momiji Nishiya, the gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

The men’s rankings, led by Shirai and U.S. star Nyjah Huston in second, include four more Japanese skateboarders in the top 10. Kairi Netsuke, 14-year-old Ginwoo Onodera, Olympic champion Yuto Horigome and Toa Sasaki are ranked fifth, sixth, seventh and 10th, respectively.

Nishiya leads the women’s rankings, with Oda third, Liz Akama fifth, Olympic bronze medalist Funa Nakayama sixth, Coco Yoshizawa seventh and Miyu Ito ninth.

“I’ll do my best in the qualifiers to go to the Paris Olympics,” Nishiya said. “And I hope I can win in Paris.”