Horigome Yuto will have to qualify for the Olympic Games the hard way.
Again.
After finishing fifth at the skateboarding Japan Open this past weekend, the double Olympic men’s street champion has been left off the team for the first three World Skate events that count towards qualifying for LA28, starting in Rome in June.
Currently, Horigome is only seventh highest from Japan in the world rankings. Not being able to pick up points from three contests will put him in a ditch as others pad out their place in the standings.
Japan’s street national coach Hayakawa Daisuke, who has known and worked with Horigome since his boyhood, did not sugarcoat the 27-year-old superstar’s challenging situation.
“I got the feeling he was unsure of which trick he wanted to try for long periods,” Hayakawa told reporters. “This one definitely hurts.”
Horigome is in familiar territory. For Paris 2024, he left it until his very last trick at the Olympic Qualifying Series in Budapest to punch his ticket to a second consecutive Games in dramatic fashion.
And in Paris, Horigome reproduced the flair by overtaking Jagger Eaton on his final attempt to top the podium by one-tenth of a point.
But with the qualification system having changed for Los Angeles – where he splits his time with Japan – Horigome is going to have to wield more magic than ever.
For him to have a shot at a third Games, he must recapture his place on the team by performing well enough at the national championships this fall, which is no easy feat given the competition depth in Japan.
Otherwise, we will have a new men’s street Olympic champion in two years’s time.
“That will be his last chance,” Hayakawa said. “If he can return to the team, he could potentially make a late run. That will be his only hope.”
READ MORE: https://www.olympics.com/en/news/skateboarding-horigome-yuto-la28-qualification
