In a press conference at Rome's Piazza Del Campidoglio, World Skate announced the launch of World Skateboarding Tour’s World Cup Rome 2026, the first skateboard qualifying event leading up to the LA28 Summer Olympics

World Skate

For Olympic skateboarding, the road to LA28 officially begins in June, with World Skateboarding Tour’s Rome World Cup 2026 serving as the sport’s first qualifying event ahead of the Games.

The launch was announced on May 28 at Rome’s Piazza del Campidoglio. The event will run from June 7 to June 21, with the WST Rome Park World Cup followed by the Street World Cup.

The event in Rome marks the beginning of a two-year qualification window that will determine the field for LA28 men’s and women’s park and street skateboarding events.

The World Skateboarding Tour serves as the official pathway for Olympic qualification, organized by World Skate, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognized governing body for the sport.

The Spot Skatepark in Rome’s coastal district of Ostis will host the Park World Cup starting June 7. One week later, the Street World Cup will take place at Colle Oppio park, overlooking the Colosseum.

More than 440 skateboarders from 66 nations are expected to compete across the two events. Organizers have confirmed prize money for men’s and women’s competitions, with a total purse of $200,000 per discipline split evenly between the athletes.

Several of the sport’s biggest stars are expected to compete, including Olympic medalists Tom Schaar, Jagger Eaton and Arisa Trew.

Both World Cup events will be free for spectators, continuing a partnership between World Skate and Italy’s state sports body, Sport e Salute. The competitions will also be broadcast live globally through TV and digital partners and on World Skate’s YouTube channel.

The full 2026 World Skateboarding Tour calendar can be found here.

The LA28 qualification window runs from June 11, 2026, through June 11, 2028, and is divided into two phases.

The first phase, running until March 31, 2028, centers on the World Skateboarding Tour, including World Cups and World Championships. Athletes accumulate ranking points through WST events, with their standings determined by their best results over an 18-month period.

At the conclusion of Phase 1, the top 44 athletes in each discipline and gender category of the World Skateboarding Ranking advance to the second and final stage of qualification.

Phase 2 consists of the Q-Series (formerly the Olympic Qualifier Series), a standalone contest series for those top 44 skaters. The series will visit four cities back-to-back in the final weeks before Olympic qualification closes: Tokyo from May 4–7, Shanghai from May 11–14, Montreal from June 1–4 and Orlando from June 8–11, 2028.

Each Phase 2 host country is guaranteed one athlete place for the men’s and women’s discipline(s) they are hosting, if not already otherwise qualified. While this is a redundancy for Japan and the U.S., which dominate in both disciplines between men and women, it could come into play for Canada and perhaps China.

When the Q-Series concludes, the top 20 athletes in the Olympic World Skateboarding Ranking in each discipline will automatically secure qualification places for the LA28.

Olympic skateboarding made its debut at the Tokyo 2020 Games and was retained for the Paris 2024 and LA28 programs, with park and street events. While World Skate looked to add an additional 44 quota places for vert to make its debut as a skateboarding discipline at LA28, ultimately it was not added to the program.