If, as we said in our throwback to the Street contest at the Paris Olympic Games last summer, skateboarding helped kickstart the event after a rained-out opening ceremony- then Park brought the images which made the newscasts and talkshows around the globe.

As a visual spectacle, the shapes of the space, the sympathetic pastel hues and the giddy riot of colour which made up the sold-out 6,400 seat arena combined to make an explosive backdrop for a contest which was the best representation of skateboarding ever seen.

Paris emerged from the deluge of the first days into a fortnight of classic European summer weather that made for not just ideal skateboarding conditions- but which made the broadcast sparkle, as well.

Cocona Hiraki’s consistency on the World Skateboarding Tour which led up to Paris meant that she was widely expected to podium, but much less certain was the prospect of doing likewise for Sky Brown.

Having pretty much pinballed from injury to injury right up to a week before the Games themselves, Sky’s repeat bronze medal was a reward for heroism as much as ability.

Both she and Cocona above her both had to give way to the Arisa Trew juggernaut, though, as the plucky Australian’s trajectory of dominance- which began on the two- leg Olympic Qualifying Series funnelling into Paris- ploughed straight through Place De La Concorde.

A Women’s final with no holds barred, leaderboard ripples, personal courage and storylines for days showed the best possible version of skateboarding culture to the largest global audience ever: Park gold number one to Australia.

Park gold number two for the comparatively low-key Australian squad came in the form of a repeat for the sublimely-talented outlier Keegan Palmer, who despite having kept something of a low profile since Tokyo certainly has the ability to rise to the largest of occasions, which this unquestionably was.

Just behind him and a last run, final-trick slam away from the greatest Park run of all time was the ascendant Tom Schaar, who barely squeaked into the Paris qualification line-up for USA- and then came within a hair’s breadth of pulling off his own Miracle Of Paris (copyright: Yuto Horigome).

Bronze in Men’s Park was claimed by the methodical Brazilian Augusto Akio, who- uncharacteristically- was one of six finalists not to complete their opening runs, as the pressure of the planet’s glare took hold early in the day.

In putting together a late 91.85 brushstroke performance for his medal, Augusto pipped superb compatriot Pedro Barros for a medal by 0.2 of a point in front of a capacity crowd which included Snoop Dogg, Tony Hawk and the entire skateboarding industry.

With that, skateboarding became one of the standout disciplines of what was itself a highly-successful Olympic Games and one which delivered giant worldwide audiences for a new era of digital-first fandom. 

While Tokyo may have been an important Olympic Games for skateboarding, Paris was the moment at which skateboarding became important to the future of the Olympic Games.

Looking back, the colour of the spectacle and the smiles on every face in every direction are the things which abide in the mind’s eye as if it were yesterday.

Re-live the magic of that high noon in high summer if you are so inclined courtesy of our friends at the Olympic Channel both here and indeed here!