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The Olympics has finally welcomed Skateboarding into the fold, with 2021 premiering four new sports in this year's games along with Climbing and Surfing. There's been a lot of talk about how things are going down, with a lot to take in, so here's what you need to know to get you started before the games this Sunday.
WHERE?
The Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo will host the very first Olympic skateboarding contest. The park has been built especially for the games and sits on the bay in Tokyo. It will hold the Skateboard and BMX competitions. WHAT? Skateboarding is divided into two competitions for the Olympics- Street and Park. Both will have a men's and a women's competition, so four competitions in total.
STREET- This competition is on the plaza course, with plenty of stairs, rails, curbs, ramps, blocks etc. This park is HUGE, with some pretty hefty stair sets and plenty of space for the athletes to choose their own unique lines.
PARK- This is based in the bowl. This giant concrete bowl has plenty of choice for all skaters, with rails dotted around the edges, shallow and very deep ends, plus the 'volcano' in the middle, which is where you'll see most of the action.
According to the organisers both parks have been built twice the size of regular competition courses, with more to choose from and a mirrored street course so that all skaters are equal. So whether the athlete skates regular or goofy, there's no disadvantage whichever way you skate.
©California Skateparks
HOW?
There's been a lot of talk on how the Olympics will be scoring skateboarding, so here are the highlights:
STREET: There will be 4 Prelims and then the Final. The athletes will be split into heats in the prelims, which consist of two 45 second runs and the best 5 trick attempts. The judges will score the runs/tricks on a scale from 0 – 10.0. The highest and lowest scores for each run/trick are dropped, leaving the average of the three remaining scores as the final result. The athletes 4 highest scores from across their best trick attempts and/or runs are added together to create the final result. The top eight from the heats go into the Finals.
PARK: Again, the park competition is split into 4 Prelims and then the Final. During the Prelims, the athletes will compete in heats, with the final eight going into the Finals. For each round, the athletes have three 45 second runs, with their best scoring run counting as the final result. Five judges score the runs on a scale between 0 and 100.00. With each run, the highest and lowest scores are taken away, with an average of the three remaining scores being the result.
WHO?
40 men and 40 women from around the world will be competing in the 4 competitions. 20 per gender, per competition. At least one athlete from each continent will be involved, plus one from the host country. A maximum of 3 athletes per gender, per competition, can enter, so no competition will be dominated by any country.
The UK has two entrants in the women's park; Sky Brown and Bombette Martin.
Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images
WHEN?
Times are subject to change, so check back for any updates.
All days start with Prelim heats at 9 am JPT (They're 8 hours ahead of us FYI!) and are one full day, so you'll find out the winner around 1pm-ish JPT (5 am-ish in the UK)
WATCH
You can watch all of the games on the BBC Sports page and red button, with highlights if you're not up at 5am!
