The United States Of America not only gave the world skateboarding, they gave the world the youth culture from which skateboarding sprang. As the end of the Second World War lifted the USA out of the Great Depression, economic upturn and the concept of the weekend gave young people both free time and enough money to do something with it- the birth of the diner, drive-in movies, and leisure time as a reason to live.

From out of that cultural soup came the activity of skateboarding which we know today, and for the first quarter of a century America dominated the world of skateboarding both in terms of participation and innovation.

Prior to the mid-1990’s, almost all professional skateboarders were from the USA.

Tom Schaar, Dubai. Current WSR ranking: 2nd

Ph: Kanights 

It was said at the time that as much as eighty percent of Thrasher Magazine’s worldwide sales were in California itself, home of publisher Hi-Speed Productions at 1303 Underwood Avenue in San Francisco, then as now.

By the tail end of that exalted decade, the trickle-down effect of the broadcasting of American lifestyle culture via the mediums of cinema, pop music, satellite television and home video meant that many aspects of USA’s cultural exports had taken on a life of their own beyond the borders or indeed control of those founding fathers and began to evolve in their own ways better related to the environments in which they found themselves.

Julian Agliardi, Rome. Current WSR ranking: 23rd

Ph: Haruta

Now: let’s rewind a few hundred years before that to a small parish in the South East of England, and the birth of the world’s second most popular spectator sport- cricket.

England invented cricket as the ultimate chap’s leisure pastime and exported it to the Commonwealth via colonisation.

The turn of the 1900’s saw the first international cricket games take place- and pretty soon New Zealand, Australia, the West Indies, South Africa, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka would all become major forces in the game, each with their own signature styles of play, from West Indian swing-bowling to Pakistani pace-bowlers who changed the speed of the game.

The point of that whole sidebar is to say: England may have invented cricket, but that doesn’t stop her former colonies from routinely thrashing her at her own game on the regular, these days. Just because one culture creates an activity doesn't mean another can't eclipse them at it.

Now let’s jump back in Marty McFly’s Delorean, and rev it up to 1.21 gigawatts until we arrive in 2026.

Ph: Arias

The United States Of America will be hosting the Olympic Games in two years, and among the medals on offer are golds in the activity which is arguably the most culturally-influential youth movement outside of music since the end of the Second World War- and which she gave the world.

Not only is it a national homecoming for skateboarding, it is actually going to be held in the Californian heartlands where the activity first caught fire in the minds of reckless youth.

Tokyo was important, and Paris was enormous, but for skateboarding itself, LA will be a global crescendo.

To be sure, the USA has done commendably well at the highest level so far when Olympic moments beckon: out of the 24 Olympic medals awarded to date, the USA have won just over a fifth of those available. That is the same as Brazil, but dwarfed by Japan who have won nine, well over a third of all possible.

Like the Brazilians before them, the Japanese became the coming tide in competitive skateboarding- and while both the Brazilians and Japanese have current established national selection structures, the USA seems to be relying on its embarrassment of professional skateboarding riches to make their team selection a much more mercurial process.

Tate Carew, Paris. Current WSR ranking: 26th

Ph: Atiba

The question is: how well will that work as a strategem when the world comes knocking on Los Angeles' door the summer after next, with a competitive field made up predominantly of visitors who, by-and-large, don't have any meaningful external sponsorship commitments, filming deadlines or vans to be in- and for whom this event is their sole focus throughout the time between then and now?

Cory Juneau, Tokyo. Currently unranked.

Ph: Landi

To unpack those five current Olympic medals for the USA in skateboarding thus far, somewhat: one, the Tokyo Men’s Park bronze, went to the sublimely talented Cory Juneau who has not competed on the Tour since Dubai back in March 2024.

Two went to Jagger Eaton, who memorably conducted an ambitious twin-track strategy during the Paris cycle to attempt to qualify in both Park and Street.

Jagger Eaton, UAE. Current WSR ranking: 30th.

Ph: Arias

Having won both bronze and silver in successive Olympic Street events up to now, you can bet he is laser-focused on completing the triumvirate in Los Angeles, the Arizona-native’s second home. His calculation to lock-in on Street will doubtless be informed by his two previous medals there- but he will also be aware that Men's Park has got a whole lot more heated of late: half of the current all-time top 10 highest scores in Men's Park have been logged in the last two stops- and some of those are now coming from semifinal results. High scores in Men's Street, however, have remained static since late 2024.

And yet, and yet: Jagger hasn’t actually graced a World Skateboarding Tour final since Paris, a dip in form for the mega-consistent competitor which had not been seen from him since the WST Lausanne-to-WST Tokyo period back in 2023.

As we mentioned in our most recent Ranking Hoppers feature, expect that to galvanise him now that the windows of opportunity on the Road To LA28 narrow.

Nyjah Huston, Kitakyushu. Current WSR ranking: 90th

Ph: Haruta

USA’s other constant threat in Men’s Street is of course his era’s greatest competitor Nyjah Huston, Paris bronze medallist and primus-inter-pares in this particular field of skateboarding.

However, potentially life-threatening injuries and competing professional demands mean that Nyjah would have to commit to climbing several mountains at once in order to add to his medal tally.

Let’s be clear: if anybody can do it, he can- but weigh against that his last WST win being that emphatic Lausanne 2023 performance, and the fact that at his last WST outing in Japan he came home an uncharacteristic 30th place- and you see the journey through pre-qualifiers and quarterfinals to begin that road back becomes ever-more daunting.

Jake Ilardi, Rome. Current WSR ranking: 38th

Ph: Haruta

With that being said, Nyjah’s Run score from Rome back in 2022 remains unbeaten on the World Skateboarding Tour four full years later, and as we will see in Women’s Street, Runs are where the battles will be lost or won more than before.

Given that consistency is a watchword across the board at this level, one storyline that surely everyone would like to see happen is Jake Ilardi's luck hold out just once to give him the chance to bank some mega-points en-route.

For someone that goes as hard as he does every single day, the luxury of not having to skate through all qualification tiers might be all he needs for a real shot at mixing up the leaderboard dynamics. He is clearly good enough. If he times that right- or fate decides to smile on him at a convenient moment during the Road To LA28- it could be one of the great justice stories of the whole thing.

Hard workers everywhere will be rooting for him- nobody puts in a shift like he does, every single time.

Paige Heyn, Lausanne. Current WSR ranking: 12th

Ph: Darwen

In the aforementioned discipline of Women’s Street, Paige Heyn has made herself the USA's current frontrunner courtesy of a courageous injury comeback of her own since WST Tokyo 2023 capped by an excellent 4th place at WST World Cup Rome last June.

Her switch smithgrinds demonstrated a flash of directional progression in Women’s Street which will give many plateauing talents nightmares, but the fact that the 50/50 points distribution for Run and Single Trick in the WST’s Street contest format means that Runs are where the ground can be made up.

The fact that three women (Chloe Covell, Liz Akama and Rayssa Leal) collectively own all current top-10 Run scores in Women’s Street- and that only half of those are in excess of 90 points- makes it clearer that having standout Best Trick selections- like teammate Poe Pinson’s gap-to-rail repertoire- wouldn’t necessarily be enough on it’s own to carry the day in LA or indeed even on the approach to then.

Poe Pinson, Tokyo. Current WSR ranking: 77th

Ph: Haruta

Men’s Park is safer ground of the USA; Tom Schaar came within one last trick of pulling off one of the greatest Runs of all-time at the Paris Olympic Games and came away with silver at what has proven to be the start of a glorious run for the humble giant from Malibu. Arguably the leading light in his oeuvre today, he has had two great podium results on the World Skateboarding Tour since then- one of which was from a performance so good he came in third with a broken run. While that may not sound particularly impressive, his second in Rome during July and that third in São Paulo earlier this year are his best consecutive results ever on the WST so if they are an indication of things gelling for him then it would be hard to see him not making it to the main event.

His fellow Top Gun Tate Carew, a perennial finalist throughout the entire Road To Paris phase of the WST has had an unfortunate run of luck since and has to effectively start over through injuries and (for him) disappointing results since. One finals berth will be all it takes to restore his groove, and everybody who loves to watch the best skateboarding wants to see that happen.

Bryce Wettstein, Paris. Current WSR ranking: 15th

Ph: Kanights

In Women’s Park, Minna Stess in 7th on the World Skateboarding Rankings is one of four American women in the top 20 (five if we can stretch it to 21 and include Joey Yarbrough), including an ever-improving Lillian Erickson in tenth.

Both Bryce Wettstein and Ruby Lilley have finals experience on the WST- and Bryce is a double-Olympian- but there is a hidden issue at play here which speaks to the USA’s medal chances in Women’s Park.

Minna Stess, Shanghai. Current WSR ranking: 7th

Ph: Haruta

The really telling statistic in Women’s Park is not the World Skateboarding Ranking order itself, but the point distribution which underlies it: the top four in Women’s Park right now are more than 30,000 points adrift of the field.

That is a mountain for anyone to climb, and the fact remains that as of this moment USA are yet to win a medal in Women’s Olympic skateboarding.

Ruby Lilley, Sao Paulo. Current WSR ranking: 20th

Ph: Abal

While the rolling ranking does not allow for point accumulations to become insurmountable, as a snapshot of where the field is right now, that is quite an accurate reflection of how things might extrapolate- were the Games to begin today, and everything were to go as each finalist would hope for themselves during their Runs.

But, as we all know, nothing is written in skateboarding. That is what makes it all so exciting.

Lillian Erickson, Sao Paulo. Current WSR ranking: 10th

Ph: Kanights

So with all that in mind: what does it mean to represent skateboarding’s biggest nation just as the biggest roadshow in the world makes a spiritual return to skating’s heartland?

What will no doubt be the biggest skateboarding contests of all time are now just two summers away in LA28.

As the World Skateboarding Tour winds its way towards California, we talked to Jagger Eaton, Paige Heyn and Julian Agliardi about the responsibilities and strategies that come with aiming to represent the USA in the USA- and their roadmaps to get there!