Go beyond the scoreboard
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PARIS — It took Nyjah Huston all of three seconds to fall on his first run at these 2024 Summer Olympics. Scrambling to his feet, he landed a couple of tricks, then fell again. The look on his face said it all.
No. Not again.
As one of the iconic figures in competitive skateboarding, the six-time world champion had faltered at the Tokyo Games three years ago, missing the same trick over and over to finish seventh.
Nearing 30 and no longer the best skater on the U.S. team — that honor arguably goes to Jagger Eaton — Huston came to Paris looking for some measure of redemption in the men’s street competition.
But after that shaky start in the preliminary round, it looked like Tokyo all over again.
“Of course thoughts like that come through my mind,” he said. “All you can do is try to pick yourself up and land the next one.”
There would be no Hollywood ending for Huston, no golden moment at the Place de la Concorde. But the way he kept glancing at the bronze medal around his neck, rubbing it between his fingers, suggested he was fine with the way things ended.
There were a few highlight-reel moments, no massive fails, on the way to the podium. It helped that, by all accounts, Monday’s competition ranked among the greatest in the sport’s history.
The defending Olympic champion, Yuto Horigome of Japan, needed a massive 270 nollie bluntside on his final attempt to leapfrog over Huston and silver medalist Eaton.
American Nyjah Huston completes a trick during the preliminaries of the men’s street skateboard competition on Monday in Paris.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
“Nyjah and Jagger were keeping such good scores,” Horigome said through a translator. “I stopped focusing on the medal and just tried the best trick I could.”
Both Americans led at some point during the competition and had one more shot at gold, but they missed on their last attempts. Eaton, who upgraded from bronze three years ago, was asked about the roller-coaster final.
“The roller coaster was that I thought I won,” he said. “Then I got off the ride.”
Huston had similarly mixed emotions about surrendering an early lead but, given the challenges he faced this time around, it was hard to be too upset.
His rise to stardom began more than two decades ago. Growing up at his family’s skate park in Davis, Calif., Huston signed his first endorsement contract at age 7 and won his first big amateur contest a few years later.
His pro career took off with the debut of Street League Skateboarding in 2010. He won the inaugural season, paving the way to those world championships and a record 23 overall skating medals at the X Games.
Nyjah Huston is the Michael Jordan of skateboarding, but he flopped in Tokyo. No longer a gold-medal favorite can he find redemption at the Paris Olympics?
Prize money and endorsements allowed him to start his own skateboard company and made him a millionaire several times over. But when the Olympics added skateboarding for the Tokyo Games, his failure to add that accolade to his resume rankled him.
“I’m sorry,” he said after the competition. “I know I definitely let some people down.”
There was no need for apologies on Monday.
After his early stumble, Huston seemed to gain confidence with each attempt, pumping his fists and smiling broadly.
At the start of the finals, which consisted of two runs and five individual tricks, Huston stood first with Eaton close behind and Horigome in fourth. His lead grew as the evening wore on, but he was hardly feeling cocky.
“Being in that first-place spot and seeing everyone have a couple more tries,” he said, “it’s like nerves.”
Eaton jumped into first with a score of 95.25 on his fourth trick. Horigome needed every bit of a 97.08 in the final round to win by a tenth of a point.
American Nyjah Huston reacts after landing a jump during the finals of the men’s street skateboard competition on Monday in Paris.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
For his final try, Huston summoned one of his toughest concoctions: A switch heel crooked grind.
“It’s a trick I’ve been working on for a long time now,” he said. “I’ve landed it in a couple other contests on smaller obstacles.”
This time, he did not.
But talking to reporters afterward, Huston couldn’t seem to let go of that medal. He seemed at ease, so different from three years ago in Tokyo. It seemed as if he got what he wanted.
“A little bit of redemption,” he said, “you know?”
