BY SCM SPORT REPORTER
ROME, Italy – IT WAS pure, unadulterated drama under the Roman lights as the world’s elite skateboarders kicked off their epic Road to the LA28 Olympics with a night of historic triumphs and brutal heartbreaks.
Overlooking the iconic Colosseum, the World Skateboarding Tour World Cup in Rome wrapped up a wild fortnight that saw pre-tournament favourites utterly crash out, while a phenomenal Aussie teenager rewrote the history books.
The night belonged to Australian teen sensation Chloe Covell, who put on the performance of her life to absolutely obliterate the Women’s Street finals.
The teenage wonderkid led from the very start, but it was her jaw-dropping execution in the Best Trick section that put the contest to bed. Covell secured a mind-blowing 22-point margin of victory—the largest ever recorded in World Skateboarding Tour history.
Japan’s ultra-consistent Yumeka Oda grabbed a well-deserved second, while China’s Chenxi Cui made history of her own, securing her first-ever podium finish in third.
Brazilian superstar Rayssa Leal didn’t make the podium, but her massive army of online fans temporarily quadrupled the live broadcast viewership when she stepped up to skate.
If the women’s final was a blowout, the Men’s division was a certified cliffhanger.
Japan pulled off a spectacular clean podium sweep, but they made their fans sweat blood for it. While Sora Shirai held a comfortable lead throughout, his compatriots Kairi Netsuke and Toa Sasaki were dead last at the bottom of the leaderboard with just two runs to go.
In a Hollywood-style finale, the duo nailed their final two tricks under immense pressure to leapfrog the field into second and third place.
But while the Japanese men celebrated, their women’s coaching staff are facing a selection nightmare. With nine skaters packed into the world’s top 30, two heavy hitters failed to even get past the quarterfinals, leaving bosses with a massive headache ahead of LA28.
The brutal nature of the Olympic cycle was laid bare before the finals even began. A galaxy of skateboarding superstars saw their LA28 dreams hit a massive speedbump in the blistering Roman heat.
USA’s poster boy Jagger Eaton, Canada’s Cordano Russell, and French flyer Vincent Milou were all sensationally dumped out before the semi-finals.
With a whopping $200,000 prize purse split between the winners, the skaters now have until November to lick their wounds before the tour heads to Asunción, Paraguay, for the World Championships.
The road to Hollywood has officially begun—and it’s going to be a bumpy ride!
