Horigome, who won the first gold in Olympic men’s street skateboarding in Tokyo three years ago by landing four high-scoring tricks, leads a class of elite Japanese male skateboarders who thrive on innovation.
He and his peers distinguish themselves by creating unique tricks that merge a variety of styles. Many of these tricks are so difficult that competitors are unable to replicate them.
In one example, the Japanese skater Sora Shirai’s “cab sugarcane” at a recent Olympic qualifier fused two intricate tricks, a “caballerial” and a “sugarcane.” The judges gave it a score of 97.07, at the time the highest for a…
