Now: followers of skateboarding’s Road To Paris (oh, you totally have been following, haven’t you?)- might have been forgiven for thinking that the two Olympic Qualifier Series events (Shanghai last month, Budapest this) would be identikit, carbon-copy legs in every respect.

Not so: while in China the event was held in a vast  naval shipyard, here in Hungary we are on the large and elegant campus of the Ludovika University of Public Service, for what is given to be a week of glorious sunshine. It’s exciting to take skateboarding into spaces where you wouldn’t normally expect to see it, is it not?

The Olympic Qualifiers in Park and Street Skateboarding this weekend will see the fields of 44 in each fully halved to determine which 22 we will see contesting each discipline later this summer in Paris. Every trick, every practice session, every rolled ankle and wheelbite has been building toward this crescendo. 12,000 excitement-hungry Hungarians are expected to be in attendance come the weekend for what looks like being a new chapter in skateboarding competition history.

So this, then, is it: on a journey where at every turn the standard has been so high we made the point that each Semifinal seemed like a Final, we are at the inflection point of the entire trip since Tokyo. Show up and bust, or go home and watch Paris from the couch.

The stakes couldn’t be higher: join us via Olympics.com this weekend to watch it unfold!