GB Team & Olympic Skateboarding

Photo: Sam Mellish / Team GB

Photo: Sam Mellish / Team GB

Skateboard GB’s purpose is to act as a vehicle to select, prepare and manage the British Skateboarding Team in the lead up to the Olympics Games, the next will take place in Paris in July / August 2024. If any GB Skateboarders are to qualify for the Olympic Games, they will then become a part of the GB Olympic Team, governed by the British Olympic Association (BOA).

Olympic Qualifying events 2023
29th Jan - 5th Feb - Sharjah, UAE. STREET
5th - 12th Feb - Sharjah, UAE. PARK
21st - 28th May - San Juan, Argentina. PARK.
18th - 25th June - Rome, Italy. STREET.
10th - 18th Sept - Lausanne, Switzerland. STREET.
1st - 8th Oct - Rome, Italy. PARK.
10th - 17th Dec - Tokyo, Japan. STREET

2024
25th Feb - 3rd March - Dubai, UAE. PARK
3rd - 10th March - Dubai, UAE. STREET
14th - 19th May - Shanghai STREET & PARK (Olympic Qualifying Series)
20th - 23rd June - Budapest STREET & PARK (Olympic Qualifying Series)

Skateboarding at the Olympics

- Is skateboarding an Olympic sport?
Yes. Skateboarding made its debut as an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in 2021 (originally 2020).

- Who are the GB skateboarders which competed at the last Olympics?
Sky Brown and Bombette Martin both qualified and competed for Team GB at the Olympic Games in the Skateboard Park competition.

- What are the Olympic skateboard disciplines?
Olympic Skateboarding will feature two disciplines: Park and Street.

Park
Park (or bowl) competitions take place on a hollowed-out course, which resembles an empty swimming pool, with steep sides and almost vertical at the top. Skaters will perform tricks such as grabs and spins out of the top of the bowl, grinds around the pool coping and aiming to be as creative as possible around the entire course.

Street
The street skateboarding competition course takes its influence from the streets (hence the name) and features stairs, handrails, benches, walls and ledges. This type of skateboarding is most popular across the world and will see skaters doing various flip tricks, grinds, slides and big gaps.

- How will skateboarders be judged in competition?
A team of 5 experienced judges will decide the winners through a scoring system for each run the skateboarder performs. The criteria will be based on difficulty and variety of performed tricks, flow or consistency in the performance, quality of execution, use of course/obstacles in a performance and repetition.

Park
Each skateboarder will get 3 runs each (in the final). Five judges will score competitors using a 0-100-point scale. The highest and lowest scores are dropped, and the remaining three scores are averaged to calculate a score for each run. The best scored run of each skater will count towards the competition result.

Street
Skateroarders will perform two 45-second runs and five individually scored tricks in each. Both of the runs, and each of the five tricks, will be judged by five judges using a 0-10 points scale. The highest and lowest are dropped with the remaining three scores averaged out to give a score for each run and trick (seven scores). The score from the best run or and the score from the two best tricks will be added to give the total round score (best possible score is 300).

For more technical information about Olympic Skateboard events and disciplines please see World Skate Skateboarding Rulebook

Olympic Skateboarding Results - TOKYO 2020

Men’s Street Final - 25/07/2021
1st - Yuto Horigome (Japan) 37.18
2nd - Kelvin Hoefler (Brazil) 36.15
3rd - Jagger Eaton (USA) 35.35
4th - Vincent Milou (France) 34.14
5th - Angelo Caro Narvaez (Peru) 32.87
6th - Aurélien Giraud (France) 29.09
7th - Nyjah Huston (USA) 26.10
8th - Gustavo Ribeiro (Portugal) 15.05

Women's Street Final 26/07/2021
1st - Momiji Nishiya (Japan) 15.26
2nd - Rayssa Leal (Brazil) 14.64
3rd - Funa Nakayama (Japan)14.49
4th - Alexis Sablone (USA) 13.57
5th - Roos Zwetsloot (Netherlands) 11.26
6th - Zeng Wenhui (China) 9.66
7th - Margielyn Didal (Philippines) 7.52
8th - Aori Nishimura (Japan) 6.92

Women’s Park Final 04/08/2021
1st - Sakura Yosozumi (Japan) 60.09
2nd - Kokona Hiraki (Japan) 59.04
3rd - Sky Brown (GBR) 56.47
4th - Misugu Okamoto (Japan) 53.58
5th - Poppy Olson (AUS) 46.04
6th - Bryce Wettstein (USA) 44.50
7th - Dora Varella (Brazil) 40.42
8th - Yndiara Asp (Brazil) 37.34

Men’s Park Final 05/08/2021
1st - Keegan Palmer (AUS) 95.83
2nd - Pedro Barros (BRA) 86.14
3rd - Cory Juneau (USA) 84.13
4th - Luiz Francisco (BRA) 83.14
5th - Kieran Woolley (AUS) 82.04
6th - Steven Pineiro (PUR) 75.17
7th - Vincent Matheron (FRA) 42.44
8th - Pedro Quintas (Brazil) 38.47

- How do athletes qualify for the Olympics?
The Paris 2024 games will have 2 skateboarding disciplines for both male and female; 4 events in all. There will be 20 places for each event, 80 in total.

Of the 20 places for each event :
-       16 athletes will qualify through the Olympic World Skateboarding Rankings, by gaining points from competing a various Olympic qualifying events throughout the year. Most points qualify.

-       3 athletes will directly qualify as the highest-ranked skaters in the World Skate World Skateboarding Championship events

-       1 place will be reserved for the host nation of Japan. This person is the highest-ranked skater in the host nation; in this case, Japan.

Each country is allowed 6 men and 6 women for skateboarding, but no more than 3 athletes per gender, per event. For example, Brazil may have 7 skaters in the top 16, but only the first 3 of those 7 will qualify.

- What’s different in the qualification process for 2024?
The IOC introduced the Olympic Qualifying Series (OQS); Two events which take place in Shanghai (May 2024) and Budapest (June 2024). The top 44 skateboarders (per discipline / per gender), 176 in total, are allocated place at these events, with a maximum of 6 per gender / per discipline for each country. The OQS competitions carry a much greater weighting of points (almost X3 that of a World Championships), meaning that any competitor can quickly accumulate a lot of points with a god result at either of these events. Competitors also carry forward their points from previous Olympic qualifying events.

- What are the Olympic World Skateboarding Rankings?
The qualification system is based on World Skateboarding Rankings. Skateboarders will earn points by competing in World Skate sanctioned events during the Olympic qualifying period and will be able to accrue points by competing at these events. Points will be awarded for the different level events, for example skaters will get more points for winning an international event, than they would for winning a regional event.

- Where can I find the rankings?
World Skate provides the latest skateboarder rankings.

NC-Sun-LR-@garryjonesphotography-60.jpg

Skateboard GB Team Information

- Does Great Britain have a skateboarding team?
Skateboard GB selected a team of 10 skateboarders in July / August 2022. Full team members information can be found HERE

- Who selects the Skateboard GB team?
The selection process for Skateboard GB utilises various attributes for deciding team members. The Skateboard GB selection panel considered several criteria, including trick difficulty level, trick repertoire, competition results and performances. The next selection period will be in Summer 2023.

- How do I get selected to be on the GB Skateboard team?
Skateboard GB has been working with UK Sport, Sport England and the Home Nation skateboarding governing bodies to create a talent pathway and performance programme, called the Pipeline Project to give British skateboarders the best opportunity to take part in future Olympic Games. The next selection period will be in 2-23.

- How is the Skateboard GB team funded?
Skateboard GB is a recipient of UK Sport Progression Funding, enabling us to support British skateboarders to qualify for the next Olympic Games

- Is there a Skateboard GB Paralympic team?
There is currently no Paralympic skateboarding events and thus no provision for a Paralympic team at this current time.

- How do I contact a Skateboard GB team athlete?
Contact and media requests for athletes can be made through our Contact Form. We aim to responded within 24-48 hours.

- What is the selection policy for Skateboard GB
The selection policy can be found here