Sora Shirai of Japan during the Men's Finals at the Street Skateboard World Cup in Rome, Italy. (Photo by: Nano Calvo/VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

VW Pics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

The first World Skateboarding Tour (WST) events of the LA28 qualification cycle have concluded in Rome, where the world’s best street and park skateboarders earned the first points in what will be a two-year journey to the next Olympics.

The World Cup in Rome marked the first official qualifying stop for LA28, with World Skate’s rankings now beginning to take shape across all four Olympic disciplines: men’s and women’s street, and men’s and women’s park.

Qualification runs through June 2028, with athletes accumulating points across World Skate World Cups and World Championships in the initial phase before the field is narrowed for the final Olympic Q-Series from April to June 2028.

Australia’s Chloe Covell delivered the standout performance of the street competition, producing the largest winning margin in WST history.

The 16-year-old led throughout the women’s final before putting the contest beyond doubt with her opening best trick. She finished 22 points clear of Japan’s Yumeka Oda, while China’s Chenxi Cui claimed her first-ever World Skate podium in third.

The men’s street final belonged entirely to Japan. Sora Shirai captured victory after maintaining his lead through the best trick section, while teammates Kairi Netsuke and Toa Sasaki climbed from the bottom of the leaderboard with clutch final tricks to complete a Japanese podium sweep.

The opening World Cup also produced several surprises, with Olympic medal contenders including Jagger Eaton of the U.S., Canada’s Cordano Russell, Brazil’s Felipe Gustavo, France’s Vincent Milou, Australia’s Shane O’Neill and Colombia’s Jhancarlos Gonzalez all exiting before the final. They departed Rome with the pressure on for their performances later in the qualification cycle.

Brazilian star Rayssa Leal drew one of the largest online audiences of the event, although she finished outside the podium.

If the street discipline belonged to Covell, park belonged to Japan’s Mizuho Hasegawa.

The 15-year-old’s top run landed her 96.33 points—the highest women’s park score ever recorded on the World Skateboarding Tour—to deny Great Britain’s reigning world champion Sky Brown.

Brown posted three consecutive scores above 90, another unprecedented feat, before Hasegawa’s final record-setting run. Japan’s Cocona Hiraki completed the podium in third.

The men’s park final proved to be one of the deepest contests in World Skate history. Five skaters entered their final runs already having surpassed 90 points, with Japan’s Issei Sakurai ultimately prevailing.

American Tom Schaar finished second despite crashing on his final attempt, while Spain’s reigning world champion Egoitz Bijueska claimed third.

While Rome awarded valuable ranking points, the opening WST World Cup represents only the first step toward LA28.

Under World Skate’s qualification system, athletes accumulate ranking points throughout the WST calendar during an initial qualification phase running until mid-2028. The top-ranked skaters then advance to the Q-Series, which determines the final Olympic field of 22 athletes per discipline and gender, subject to country quotas and other eligibility criteria.

The current World Skateboard Ranking (WSR) can be found here.

The qualification calendar now shifts to several major events through the end of 2026: