There is an old Arabic proverb that has been passed down since the days of the desert tribes, and which runs thusly: ‘Eat the egg- and then eat the shell’.

The rationale behind it is: don’t just get what you need, also don’t leave anything behind which could later be useful to your competition, even if you can’t see how it could be, right now.

In the pure calculus of survival, you can see the symmetry of the logic.

In military strategy this is known as a ‘Scorched Earth’ policy: even as you retreat in the face of an enemy advance, do everything possible to make life hard for them in that space- to cook, to hide, to survive.

Eat the egg, and then eat the shell.

So check this out: Brazil currently have eight skateboarders in the top thirty of Men’s Park (I know, right?).

Their ninth, 2024 World Champion Augusto Akio, lies just outside the vitally significant 30th-place ‘bubble’ cut-off spot for Olympic progression in 31st. Realistically, he seems likely to go up, not down, as we roll toward LA.

How’s that for a scorched earth strategy: clearly, not all those Brazilians can progress to the Olympic Games- but they can keep a lot of top boys from even making it out of the first cut, just by strength in depth- just one country taking up almost a third of those top 30 spots, if today’s rankings were to maintain until Phase 1 ends in March 2028.

Particularly, USA and Australia will be taking note: the Brazilians are about to eat the egg and then eat the shell in Men’s Park, leaving a lot of potential finalists sat at home, not because they weren’t within the top three from their own country- but because they lay too far down the rankings to progress out of the current phase by sheer weight of Brazilian numbers up at the top end of the leaderboard.

Strategic genius from the Brazilians- if they can maintain it; Japan look likely to attempt something similar in Women’s Street.

Already, the great game begins.

Within that context, here’s a look at some of the other big stories from the post-São Paulo World Championship shuffle in Park!

Minna Stess times it just right for 6th

A welcome return to the top end of the leaderboard in Women’s Park for the American ATV as she took a well-deserved third place in her third WST finals to date.

Tactically astute and versatile, Minna is now her home nation’s highest-ranked female skateboarder as the Road to the LA28 Olympic Games begins- which is no small thing to be able to say!

Egoitz Bijueska doubles down on his pole position

As with Ibuki Matsumoto in Women’s Street it is not so much the first-place position in which Egoitz Bijueska finds himself but the scale of his lead which is mind-blowing. 64,000 points ahead of the field, he will remain the WSR number one through WST Rome regardless of the outcome, since as a World Cup-tier event the maximum possible points anyone can win is 50,000 even were he not to enter. Having taken a real pummelling on the road to becoming 2025 World Champion his success is nothing short of heroic- but more so when you consider that in the Olympic Qualifier Series for Paris 2024 he came in 33rd and 32nd in Shanghai and Budapest respectively. When we talk about trajectories, this guy is On One.

Lillian Erickson seizes her moment to go 7th in the world

Much like Dora Varella at the Paris Olympic Games, you get a sense with Lilly’s making her first WST finals at the São Paulo World Championship that she has hit peak form at just the right moment. She was unlucky to be bumped out of finals contention in Rome, but looked better than ever in Brazil- and with the extra point weighting attributed to World Championship results she moves up to seventh, meaning that the USA now have two women in the top 10 just as everything moves up a gear.

She can be well pleased with her position on the Ranking right now: she deserves to be.

Yuro Nagahara goes 4th but could climb even higher

It is possible to be unkind to the Japanese Men’s Park team and suggest that they are the only Olympic skateboarding division in which Japan does not dominate. Admittedly, Japan holds all three other WSR number one positions currently (and hold all top three in both Street divisions!)- but they currently have 4 skateboarders within the top 30 in Men’s Park, same as the USA (Brazil has eight).

Foremost among the Japanese men's team is Yuro Nagahara. Now: you might think a Japanese competitive skateboarder is likely to be characterised by methodical technique, comfortable consistency and the ability to go up gears- but Yuro only has one gear. He is virtually an adopted Brazilian because they love his gung-ho, on-edge, watch-through-your-fingers, go big or go home, call-it-what-you-will type-charging. For sheer burliness, you could draw comparisons with the great Lincoln Ueda, but of his contemporaries only Pedro Barros is that crazy.

Consistency at that level is out of the question because everything is a roll of the dice, but when it gels it is unreal. Remarkably, he has only made finals twice on the WST- but if he gets lucky once, everybody else is in trouble.

Bubble Trouble looms for 2024 World Champion Augusto Akio

The reversal of Yugo Nagahara’s situation, where a couple of strong recent results sees him climb to his highest position despite a patchy finishing history, the usually unflappable former World Champion Augusto Akio currently finds himself in the unenviable position of lying just outside the 30th-place qualification bubble, with fully eight of his teammates above him. Having not made it beyond qualifiers in Brazil- and that off the back of an uncharacteristic 16th place in Rome last June, this represents a dip in form for the balance maestro.

Leaving aside a semifinal appearance in Dubai back in 2024, Augusto has made every other Park finals on the Tour, and will need to re-find that form soon or be left to the tender mercies of national quota cuts as the Road to LA progresses.

Julia Benedetti soldiers through pain to go 8th, her highest-ever position

The other glow-up of Women’s Park in São Paulo was Spain’s Julia Benedetti, who rallied after a terrible slam on the rainbow rail during semifinals to make her first ever WST finals and come away with a commendable 6th place. Having made semifinals three times before, this breakthrough for Julia was marked by personal courage in riding through injury to achieve her all-time highest WSR ranking of 8th as LA28 hoves into view just two summers away.

A terrific achievement for a skateboarder who has never missed a single WST stop so far!