Olympics: Men's Street Finals
Originally planned to open the second-ever Olympics Skateboarding calendar, Shane O'Neill was moments away from dropping in as the first skater at Paris 2024 before an unfortunate downpouring of rain washed out the course, causing a frustrating delay and tensions to mount throughout the weekend.
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With the course dry by Sunday the women's division opened the affair, putting on a fitting opening affair crammed with drama. Japan's Coco Yoshizawa and Liz Akama took home the top two spots, with Rayssa Leal trailing just behind in third.
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The rescheduled men's event finally took place on the Monday and, with his countrymates' successes fresh in his mind and the heavy pressure of repeating his victory at Tokyo 2020, it was all eyes on Yuto Horigome.
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Following the preliminary heats, fan favourite Chris Joslin and local heroes Vincent Milou and Aurelien Giraud were amongst those who missed the cut for the final 8 heading into the finals. Jagger Eaton came out strongest, closely followed by fellow countryman Nyjah Huston, with Japan's Sora Shirai and Yuto Horigome, Argentina's Matias Dell Olio, Brazil's Kelvin Hoefler, Canada's Cordano Russell, and Slovakia's Richard Tury making up the remainder of the bracket.
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Jagger looked to have wrapped things up, with Yuto sitting in an uncharacteristic 7th place, before a perfectly executed Nollie 270 Bluntslide down the course's biggest handrail in the Best Trick section of the event turned the table on its head, the fatal dagger for Jagger as Yuto scored Gold for the second time running and Team USA filled out the rest of the podium with a Silver medal for Eaton and Bronze for Nyjah Huston.
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