The skateboarding element of the 2026 Asian Games has just concluded inNagoya, Japan.

The World Skate- sanctioned Street and Park events have no direct bearing on Olympic qualification, taking place as they do outside the World Skateboarding Tour’s annual scheduling- but for status and experience purposes at a continental level in skateboarding, the Asian Games carries its own significance.

Just ask Philippines’ Margielyn Didal, who became a continental sensation courtesy of her win in Women’s Street at the Asiad back in 2018.

Held every four years, the only continental comparison can be made with the PanAmerican Games, and even then that doesn’t take into account the passion of inter-Asian competition and the rewards it can reap in the world’s most populous continent in terms of raising profiles and securing interest from sponsors.

(All photos: Kenji Haruta)

You only had to look at the reaction of 17-year-old Korean newcomer Juni Kang to discovering he had won- emphatically- with a 270 Nollie Heelflip Lipslide during Best Trick. He cried happy tears, knowing that his success will mean something not just within the world of Asian skateboarding but to his neighbours and relatives as well. Not every victory can provide that.

In taking gold Juni won by over 8 points over Japanese duo Toa Sasaki and Ginwoo Onodera for silver and bronze resepectively, which really sets the cat amongst the pigeons for the 2026 WST World Championship in Paraguay at which all threee are expected to compete again on the Road To LA28 in just a few short weeks’ time from now.

Exactly the same thing as Juni’s success can be said of the ever-improving Chinese 15-year-old Yuanling Zhu, who won her first ever international event here this weekend.

Having missed out on making it into the finals at WST World Cup Rome last June for what would have been her third top-8 appearance in a row, this will be a timely confidence booster for her ahead of the incoming WST World Championship Street Asuncion next month.

Japan’s ever-exuberant Yumeka Oda continues her run of podium places from where she left off on the World Skateboarding Tour by adding another well-deserved silver to her already-bulging medal haul. The 2023 World Champion is re-asserting herself event by event.

Bronze was the prize for Chenxi Cui, who at this point is China’s best-performing female Street skateboarder to date. Having won here as a 14 year old back in 2022 she may have had higher ambitions for this edition, but she can take comfort in the fact that this podium comes off the back of her first-ever podium on the World Skateboarding Tour in Italy back in June, and the fact that she is riding higher in the World Skateboarding Rankings than anyone from her nation ever has right now in third place overall.

Park golds were a perhaps unsurprising domestic one-two punch from the Japanese, with younger Nagahara sibling Izuru backing up his scintillatingly impactful World Skateboarding Tour debut in Rome last June with his first international victory here on home turf.

Having been laid up for a month with a knee injury in between times, it took some straight talking from older brother Yuro to get Izuru to put down the video games and focus on ripping here- but you can be sure he is now glad that he listened.

Having only qualified in third place, Izuru put down two perfect runs to make the rest of the contest a battle for the runners-up.

Those went to mighty Max Ku from Taipei, who at only 12-years-old ended his run with a 720 which should concern everyone in that division, and Rodeo’ing 15-year-old fashion icon Gunjo Shiji who had the shortest journey home afterwards, hailing as he does from Aicihi prefecture where the Asiad is being held.

Gunjo re-entered the fray after a slam heavy enough to require stretchering from the FOP, so the weekend's warrior award goes to him, too.

Mizuho Hasegawa was the second golden blow of that Japanese medal combo in Park in a result which only adds to her aura of unstopability right now. The World number one on the WSR rankings is headed to the World Championships in Paraguay not only 40,000 points clear of the pack but also adds this win to two WST wins in the last 3 outings- and a 2025 World Championship silver in there, too. How’s that for a CV right now?

If there could be one story bigger than Mizuho’s then it could only be Japanese compatriot Misugu Okamoto’s unbelievable redemption arc for silver.

Misugu, you may recall, quit skateboarding altogether after feeling disappointed with her Tokyo Olympic Games performance.

Now, having completed her academic studies, she has returned to international skateboarding in a most incredible way.

In third, and in her own way no less incredible, was Taipei’s Yi-fan Lin.

The 14-year-old stumbled upon skateboarding as a family at one of Taipei’s riverside parks, Yi-fan’s engineer father Lin Chien-nan helped found Starting Point Skatepark in Taoyuan’s Longtan District.

Having made it to the semifinals of the World Skateboarding Tour twice already, this bronze medal success will reverberate for her in ways yet to be imagined. Superb Sugarcane as well.

There can be no doubt that skateboarding’s inclusion in the Asian Games since 2018 has been anything other than good for the growth of skateboarding culture across the continent of Asia: from Nepal to Iran, Kazakhstan to Indonesia they sent their best skateboarding talents for an experience they will never forget and a platform few outside the region can grasp.

Congratulations not only to the medallists but everyone who entered and put their best foot forward and represented skateboarding in such a progressive, positive way to the youth of Asia and beyond.

Asian Games 2026 Results: Park

Women’s:

1. Mizuho Hasegawa
2. Misugu Okamoto
3. Yi-fan Lin

Men’s:

1. Izuru Nagahara
2. Max Ku
3. Gunjo Shiji

Asian Games 2026 Results: Street

Women’s:

1. Yuanling Zhu
2. Yumeka Oda
3. Chenxi Cui

Men’s:

1. Juni Kang
2. Toa Sasaki
3. Ginwoo Onodera