Yuto Horigome has never been afraid to leave things late. In danger of missing the podium entirely after bottling one trick after another on a sweltering Monday afternoon, the 25-year-old face of Japanese skateboarding roared from behind in the final reel to retain his Olympic men’s street title ahead of the US pair of Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston, who took silver and bronze respectively.
Amid oppressive heat beneath a cloudless sky in the temporary La Concorde stadium, Horigome once again came up clutch when it mattered most. He completed a flawless slide down the 10-stair round rail on his fifth and final trick to move into gold position by a tenth of a point over Eaton, a bronze medalist three years ago in Tokyo. The near-perfect score of 97.08 left the door open for both Americans, but each wiped out on his final attempt to the relief of Horigome, who became the first double Olympic champion in skateboarding’s brief history as a medal sport.
