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https://scmp.com/sport/article/3143298/tokyo-olympics-yuto-horigome-ushers-new-era-skateboarding-japan
Sport

Tokyo Olympics: Yuto Horigome ushers in a new era of skateboarding in Japan

  • The 22-year-old is hopeful his performance can inspire more people to take up the sport in his home nation
  • He believes the stigma of being an activity for aimless youth is disappearing and thinks ‘Japan’s skateboarding level will get higher and higher’
Japan’s Yuto Horigome in action during the skateboarding competition at the Tokyo Olympics. Photo: EPA-EFE

When Yuto Horigome’s father handed him a skateboard for the first time at the age of seven, no one could have imagined the Japanese kid would become the world’s best skateboarder 15 years later, ushering in a new era of the sport in the country.

“I believe that there will be more support for skateboarding in Japan,” he said in an interview via Zoom. “With more people joining the sport, Japan’s skateboarding level will get higher and higher.”

Horigome, 22, pulled off a series of monster moves at the Tokyo Games, earning him a gold medal in street skateboarding on his home turf as the sport debuted in the Olympics.

Two other young Japanese skateboarders, 12-year-old Momiji Nishiya and 16-year-old Funa Nakayama, took gold and bronze in the women’s street skateboarding respectively, showing the nation’s dominance in the sport.

Yuto Horigome with his gold medal. Photo: Reuters
Yuto Horigome with his gold medal. Photo: Reuters

Brazil’s Kelvin Hoefler, 28, won silver in the men’s street skating, while the USA’s Jagger Eaton, 20, took bronze.

With the Japanese skateboarders’ massive victory in Tokyo, Horigome hoped it would turn into a more popular sport and that teenagers will be encouraged to pick up a board.

In Japan, skateboarding is sometimes considered an activity for aimless youth. Not many Japanese were skateboarding when Horigome started, he said. It took him some time to learn but thanks to his father’s patience, he got better and faster than his peers did.

His father Ryota Horigome, a taxi driver who works 10 hours a day, 28 days a month, was also a skateboarder.

Momiji Nishiya of Japan wins gold in the women’s street skateboarding. Photo: Reuters
Momiji Nishiya of Japan wins gold in the women’s street skateboarding. Photo: Reuters

The world champion first started skating in the regular parks and as he got better, he would travel 40 minutes by tram to the skateboarding venues to practice.

He moved to the Los Angeles in the USA when he was 14 to skateboard with the best athletes in the world.

“It’s been my dream to skateboard in the USA. I have fulfilled my dream,” he said.

He decided to move to the US at the time because the overall level of skateboarding was higher and it would motivate him to be a better athlete. He bought a home in Los Angeles last year and now spends half of his time there, and the other half in Japan.

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He said he spent two to four hours on his practice every day, and would sometimes train seven days a week. His secret in becoming a world champion was to set a target of what he wanted to achieve every time before he practised, before moving on to the next goal.

The young Olympic gold medallist encouraged teenagers around the world not to give up on learning skateboarding, even if their parents were not supportive. They could go to the skateboarding parks to borrow skateboards from the people there, he suggested.

The teens can also ask to have the old skateboards that others are discarding, before upgrading them to use and fall in love with the sport.

“Don’t give up on your dreams,” Horigome said.

Asked what Japan needed to do to make skateboarding a more popular sport, he said that the US has some of the best skateboarding venues in the world, and thus his country could start by building more skate parks.

Looking ahead, the new face of the skateboarding world said he would constantly challenge himself and would also be on a mission to spread the fun and excitement of skateboarding.