Why have a rolling results window?

The WSR’s rolling 18-month results window going forward toward LA28 rewards consistency, while offering opportunities for new entrants to overcome point stockpiles accrued from previous years.

Our aim is to keep the World Skateboarding Tour- and the Olympic cycles which it forms the sole pathway into- competitive, fair and exciting for all involved.

In essence, the rolling results window makes the World Skateboarding Tour dynamic because it recognises just how the competitive standard goes up not just from year to year but even from event to event.

Since the standard is ever-increasing, the competition effectively becomes not to arrive within but maintain in contention as any aspect of competitive leverage such as pre-seeding is sought.

You may recall from our Ranking Hoppers feature post- São Paulo the strategic impetus to ‘eat the egg, and then eat the shell’- well, what that speaks to is the answer to the obvious question a rolling window invites: “Couldn’t I just storm it at every contest in the 18 months immediately prior to LA28, and qualify that way?”

Let’s be clear: the answer to that is a theoretical ‘yes’- but to give you an idea of the likelihood of that possibility in the most competitive skateboarding series in the world, let me ask you another question.

What do the following skateboarders have in common: Pedro Barros, Ginwoo Onodera, Gustavo Ribeiro, Sakura Yosozumi, Tom Schaar, Felipe Gustavo?

Internationally renowned as being elite skateboarders? Absolutely. 

Olympic medallists? Some, not all. 

Invitational trophy winners? No doubt.

The other thing which they share in common is- despite those credentials and name recognition- that none of them have ever won a stop on the World Skateboarding Tour outright.

That is what is different about the World Skateboarding Tour: you are up against hundreds of hungry rippers, not just a hand-selected few.

Keep that in mind as we look at what the significance of the World Skateboarding Ranking is at this level, and why every incremental benefit it confers can turn into advantage in a sphere where no quarter is asked or given on the road to Olympic glory- or otherwise.

Now, some genius or another has already written this really rather good overview of the World Skateboarding Ranking and why it matters, but the events of Kitakyushu and São Paulo most recently have brought into sharp focus just what is at stake as the Road To LA28 appears over the horizon.

The golden ticket of benefits from results on the World Skateboarding Tour is the luxury of pre-seeding. The previous podium finishers plus next two highest-WSR ranked skateboarders not only skip qualification but also get a dedicated practice slot where they don’t have to rush themselves into a groove. That certainly seems to bring benefits to the mental aspect of their preparation, and also makes for some of the best stress-free sessions you will ever see.

The reverse is also true, however. In essence, every extra day you have to skate is one more day in which something can go wrong. Skateboarding is art not science, and even top-flight skateboarders can make pedestrian errors given too much time to overthink basics. 

Certainly in both Kitakyushu and São Paulo recently, we saw skateboarders who on paper should be a shoo-in to the finals crash and burn at the Quarterfinals stage- or even before.

That is what difference a day can make.

Sandwiched between both those polarities there is another less obvious advantage to WSR ranking for everyone involved: what time you skate. 

For riders far down the ranking, the time between collecting your board bags off the airport carousel and hearing your name called out will be shorter. Not that it will impact your practice time- every heat gets the same- but it lessens the time for you to gather composure and feel comfortable in what, after all, is a global competitive environment in which everybody wants to do their level best for their team, friends, family and nation back home.

So this, then becomes the point: when asked “Does this event matter to Olympic qualification?” - the answer has become that everything matters, all the time, at this level.

Remember: Pedro Barros, Ginwoo Onodera, Gustavo Ribeiro, Sakura Yosozumi, Tom Schaar, Felipe Gustavo- all yet to win a single WST stop so far, as we enter a third Olympic cycle next month in Italy. 

That is how exacting the World Skateboarding Tour actually is.