PARIS — For a brief moment on Monday, Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston thought they had half a gold medal in hand, but they settled for silver and bronze medals, respectively, as Japan’s Yuto Horigome produced a stunning move on his final attempt to dominate and win his second consecutive Olympic gold medal.
But skateboarding is no ordinary Olympic sport. Competitors support and inspire each other. Pushing limits is just as rewarding as winning a medal. In that sense, Eaton and Houston will have an even bigger reward when they leave Paris: The two American stars will have participated in the greatest skateboarding finals in history.
“Not only were there some amazing tricks, but I think there was a lot to take from the excitement of the crowd and what we got out of it,” said Eaton, who improved on his bronze medal from three years ago in Tokyo. “The crowd was so excited and it just felt like a great day of skateboarding with some friends. Yeah, there was a lot at stake, but it was just a lot of fun and I’m glad I was a part of it.”
But there was drama and tension, too, as was evident for the 29-year-old Houston, the most decorated skateboarder in history with 12 X Games gold medals and six world championship gold medals.
In Tokyo, where skateboarding made its Olympic debut, Huston was the heavy favorite but fumbled, finishing in seventh place, but in Paris he pulled off some daring tricks and earned a score that put him in first place with three attempts remaining.
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He was in position to improve, and had one more big surprise up his sleeve if he needed it, and on any other day, the score he had already achieved would probably have been enough to win.
“The feeling of sitting there, especially being in first place and watching everybody get a couple more tries, is indescribable,” Houston said. “It’s nerve-wracking, you can’t even put it into words.”
Then, on his fourth of five attempts, he watched Eaton outdo Houston with a nollie 270 noseblunt. “Nobody has ever done that competitively, and I’ve barely done it myself,” Eaton said, raising his arms as he secured a shaky landing.
Eaton turned the tide when the score reached an astounding 95.25, and Eaton suddenly led with a cumulative score of 281.04 to 279.38, with Houston only needing one attempt to beat the lowest score.
“I thought we won,” Eaton said.
Neither of them could have predicted what happened next – though perhaps they should have.
It wasn’t Horimai’s best day – he failed to land three tricks in a row until his final attempt – and it would have taken something amazing just to get on the podium, but he still managed to beat them both with 270 points, awarded 97.08 by the judges, one of the highest scores in skateboarding history, and he overtook both of them to take first place.
“Yuta is a savage,” Eaton said. “There’s no other way to describe it.”
“It’s insane,” Houston said. “It’s insane.”
Both Americans had one more chance, but Eaton’s problem was that he had already played his cards. In skateboarding, you can’t repeat a trick you’ve already nailed, so his strategy of doing his best trick on the fourth run instead of the fifth and final one left Eaton with little chance to improve.
“I could sit here and be upset, but I did what I wanted to do, did the best I could and gave 100 percent throughout this whole journey,” he said. “That happens. I’m sitting here with a silver medal, there were two Americans on the podium, and I’m OK.”
“The level of competition was incredible. It’s no exaggeration to say it was the greatest finals in skateboarding history.”
Huston still had something saved for his final move: a switch-heel crooked grind, a move he’d successfully completed on small obstacles at other competitions, but this was at the Olympics, in an unfamiliar venue and in conditions completely different from anything he’d faced before.
“Oh man, it’s hard to stop that in that moment,” Houston said.
Still, Huston left with his medal, a little bit of redemption for his shockingly poor performance in Tokyo and a drive to return to the Olympics in his home town of Los Angeles four years from now.
“I’m really mad at myself for being so close to gold and not landing the last trick, because I knew I could do it. But skateboarding is all about having fun. It’s the best thing on earth and the most fun thing on earth,” he said.
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