One of the smallest athletes at X Games Chiba 2023 made the biggest impact on the final day of the competition.
Thirteen-year-old Yokohama native Ginwoo Onodera made jaws drop with his performance in the men's skateboard street final in his X Games debut at Zozo Marine Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
"I was able to do my best because everyone was cheering me on," Onodera said. "I was thinking about winning and about making all my moves."
Onodera scored 90.33 points on the first of his two runs and that was enough for gold ahead of Brazilian Kelvin Hoefler, who scored 83.66 on his best run, and American Jamie Foy, who was third with 83.33.
Onodera is the youngest medalist in the history of the men's street contest at the X Games.
He dropped in and nailed a smooth kickflip backtail on a rail before going on to own the course with clean trick after clean trick, drawing oohs and ahhs from the crowd.
He saved the best for last, taking to the air from the top of a staircase, flipping his board onto the rail and sliding down backward the rest of the way.
"It's very eye-opening," Foy said. "I would say, kickflip front blunt big spin, on the big rail, that's something that if you told someone 10 years ago that was going to happen, a little kid was going to do it, you're going to be, 'Haha, that's crazy.' But here we are today and it's happened, it's amazing."
Onodera raised both arms toward the sky and pumped his fists following the run.
The event was limited to one round due to rain on Saturday.
"It can't be helped," Onodera said. "It was the same for everyone."
That meant a final round with 15 athletes, instead of the usual seven or eight.
"I'm glad we skated," Hoefler said. "Because those days we were out here it was rainy, and we couldn't skate. I'm glad that everyone skated really well, no one got hurt and everyone had fun."
Onodera was already the youngest to win gold at Japan's national championships and the youngest male to earn a medal (bronze) at the world championships.
Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk sang his praises on Saturday, and it seems like the sky's the limit for the rising young star.
"My aim is to win every tournament I enter," he said when asked about future events.
The 55-year-old Hawk also competed, taking part in the men’s vert best trick competition.
Australian BMX rider Ryan Williams enjoyed a moment two years in the making as he took gold in BMX park best trick.
Willams went airborne and was upside down and then parallel as he spun before landing a flair 900 on the street course.
"I've been practicing the trick for two years," Williams said. "I have a compound at my house in Australia and I've been basically fine-tuning the trick, making sure it would work and then I was going to unleash it here in Japan at the X Games for the first time.
Williams screamed and launched into a wild celebration afterward, holding his bike above his head while shouting "Let's go!"
"You see my reaction, because the first attempt I got pretty close and then my tire exploded,” he said. "So I was frantic and I was like, 'am I going to get another go.' I knew that maybe I was only going to get one more shot because we were not sure on time and how many attempts we would get. To roll away that second time, you can see it in my face how excited I really was to land it."
Japanese rider Yu Katagiri won the gold in the BMX Flatland event, beating out Jean William Prevost from Canada and France's Matthaias Dandois.
France’s Edouard Damestoy won the skateboarding vert final, with Americans Tom Schaar and Jimmy Wilkins occupying the other spots on the podium.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.