Skateboarding will make an appearance on the Olympic program for the second consecutive Games at Paris 2024, represented by two disciplines: street and park.
At the Tokyo Olympics, where skateboarding made its debut, there were 80 quota spots available—40 for men and 40 for women, with 20 competitors in each of the four events.
At the Paris 2024 Games this summer, skateboarding will have an additional eight quota spots, for 88 total—44 for men and 44 for women, 22 in each event.
The skateboarding Olympic qualification period runs through June 23, with one major event to go—the Budapest Olympic Qualifier Series. Following the conclusion of that event, the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) will announce their Olympic skateboarding teams.
For each of the four events, 20 athletes will qualify through the world skateboarding rankings. France, as the host country, will have a guaranteed quota in each event. The final four quotas are reserved for Universality Places, determined by the Tripartite Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). These are designed to increase the diversity of participating nations across the Games, especially from NOCs with small delegations.
After the Olympic skateboarding roster is determined, competition will kick off on July 27 and 28 with the men’s and women’s street events respectively, and wrap up on August 6 and 7 with the women’s and men’s park events, respectively.
For the uninitiated, street and park are quite different not only in the tricks performed and the ways athletes structure their runs, but also in how they are scored. Here is an explainer for how skateboarding will be scored at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Street Skateboarding Scoring
Street events are held on a straight course that mimics obstacles skaters would find skating an urban environment, such as stairs, rails and ledges. Athletes have two 45-second runs as well as five best trick attempts and are judged on difficulty, execution and variety.
While the format for street skateboarding is the same as at the Tokyo Games, the scoring has changed.
In the Tokyo Games, each trick or run was given an individual score between 0 and 10 points. The total score was the sum of the best four scores from any of the runs or trick attempts.
At Paris 2024, each trick or run will be scored between 0 and 100. The total score will take into account the skateboarder’s best run out of two and each of their best two tricks, for a final score of between 0 and 300.
The rule change comes in part to ensure that both runs and trick attempts count toward an athlete’s final score. (At the Tokyo Games, Yuto Horigome, who won the men’s street event, had his two lowest scores in his two runs, so his final score was based only on tricks.)
One other rule change for Paris 2024 in both qualifiers and finals is scoring refusal. Each skateboarder can ask the judges to disregard one trick if they wish to attempt to improve it without incurring any penalty for repeating the same trick. The refused attempts will count for zero points.
The top eight skaters from the men’s and women’s street preliminary rounds will advance to their respective finals.
In the event of a tie, the skater with the higher run score will be ranked higher. If that still results in a tie, the higher-scoring trick between the two skaters will be ranked higher.
Park Skateboarding Scoring
Park events are held in a bowl-like course with numerous bends and a large middle feature often including a box or rails, and most of the tricks athletes perform are spins and flips mid-air or grinds along the edge of the bowl. The focus is on putting together a line that flows well and maintaining speed.
In the preliminary round, each skater will take three 45-second runs, with their top score counting toward their ranking. The top eight skaters will advance to the final.
In the final, each skater will once again take three 45-second runs, and the highest-scoring single run will determine their ranking.
Each run is scored on a scale of 0-100 points based on overall impression, taking into account height, difficulty and variety of tricks as well as speed and flow through the course.
A panel of five judges will each deliver a score, with the highest and the lowest being dropped. The three remaining scores are averaged together to get the score for each run.
In the event of a tie, the skater with the second-highest scoring run will be ranked higher.