Since the World Skateboarding Tour is an ongoing series, outright victory at any one stage is not the be-all and end-all.
The most important thing from a strategic point of view is to stay in the part of the leaderboard mix where the point allocations remain juicy enough to contribute a worthwhile addition to your WSR total.
WSR point rankings are not just a running tally- only your best results (4 for Street, 3 for Park) from the previous 18 months go toward your WSR rank.
This means that away from the podium, there is also a larger battle raging to stay in the zone where the point allocation is enough for you to maintain position- or, ideally, rise up the ranking- because otherwise someone hungrier is going to leapfrog you. That’s what they are here to do.
The other dynamic at play here is, of course, for national team quota spots. Each nation can only ‘safeguard’ three skateboarders for entrance into future WST events by nominating them as their desired representatives. For powerhouse nations this is a big challenge, because they potentially have 6,7,8 potential podium contenders who they would like to enter.
However, if you are selection number 4/5/6 for your country, the only way you can maintain your right to enter is by making it into the top 30 in the WSR- and be ranked within the top 6 out of your compatriots.
This means that there are battles within battles not just to avoid the cuts within this contest (180 down to 40 for quarterfinals; 40 down to 16 for semifinals; 16 down to 8 for finals)- but to stay north of that position 30 ‘bubble’ point on the WSR in order to stay in the race overall.
Remember that by the time LA28 rolls around it will only be the 18 months of results prior to that which are taken into account in determining Olympic eligibility: all this drama is about jockeying for position just to be in the strongest possible place going into that window. That is how serious the level of competition is here. 180 skateboarders from 40 nations. 4 years out from LA 28.
Quite incredible really, wouldn’t you say?
In today’s Women’s Park Open Qualification, 58 skateboarders dropped in trying to make sure they stayed not just north of that 32nd place cut, below which you are watching with an ice cream from the stands for the duration- but also trying to ensure that they don’t lose their national team slot, too.
Leading the leaderboard charge today was France’s Nana Taboulet (WSR position: 11th) who only made her first WST finals back in September. Mind you, she did that here in Ostia and already looks better than she did ten months ago. She will be one of the qualifiers who may unseat a member of the pre-seeded 8 for a finals berth if all goes to plan for her over the next days.
Qualifying in second place was the much-improved Lin Yi-Fan from Chinese Taipei, who is currently ranked 29th in the world and up to now has never made it to a final on the WST. She and Nana were the only two to break the 80-point mar
k today, but close on their heels came comparative unknown Rui Sugawara from Japan, who we haven’t seen since San Juan back in 2023- but who bagged two runs above 76 here in a comfortable cruise into the next round.
Not making the cut but worthy of noting here is Peru’s Brigitte Morales (55th in the WSR)- you may recall she was one of the IOC’s Youth Athlete Development selections for the Paris Olympic cycle- who at 37th place just posted her best-ever WST result to date.
These 32 qualifiers will join the 8 pre-seeded skaters (Minna Stess, Sakura Yosozumi, Mizuho Hasegawa, Arisa Trew, Naia Laso, Raicca Ventura, Hinano Kusaki and Kokona Hiraki) to form a 40-deep Quarterfinal come Friday.
Tomorrow is Men’s Open Qualification; we will report back then!
