With three reigning Olympic champions and some of the sport’s fastest-rising stars among its ranks, Japan is widely regarded as one of skateboarding’s global hot spots.
Yet despite the country’s success at the Tokyo Games and the subsequent surge in interest, the sport faces a new challenge: Introducing its iconic street culture in a country where “no skateboarding” signs are common and most participants must go to parks and gyms to practice their skills.
This weekend saw perhaps the largest step yet toward putting street skateboarding in front of larger audiences, with Ariake Arena hosting Uprising Tokyo, a three-day gathering of some of the discipline’s best athletes, including reigning Olympic men’s street skateboarding champion Yuto Horigome.
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