Rome concluded the opening salvo of the Road To LA28 on a balmy evening overlooking the Colosseum from Parco Colle Oppio as the World Skateboarding Tour World Cup Rome Street 2026 wrapped a fortnight extravaganza in the Italian capital.
134 skateboarders from 59 countries entered proceedings at the start of the week but come Sunday night only 8 men and 8 women remained to do skateboarding combat in the shadow of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
The journey through to finals produced no end of surprises with some of the biggest names in Men’s skateboarding out of contention even before semifinals: USA’s Jagger Eaton, Canada’s Cordano Russell, Brazil's Felipe Gustavo, France’s Vincent Milou, Australia’s Shane O’Neill and Colombia’s Jhancarlos Gonzalez all found themselves far down the results list just as they needed to kickstart their Olympic campaigns.
Each will now need to produce much improved results when the Tour advances to Paraguay as part of the World Skate Games this coming November.
Amidst skyrocketing daytime temperatures in the Eternal city, Finals took place after sundown as the skatepark lights illuminated a high-intensity showdown between the elite of international competitive Street skateboarding.
Women’s finals saw Brazilian superstar Rayssa Leal urged ever onwards by her legion of online fans who tuned in by the thousands, temporarily quadrupling the live broadcast viewership during her appearance. One of the internal dramas within the women’s division here in Rome was the jockeying for position inside the Japanese team.
Going into the event with the quota-maximum nine skateboarders already within the top 30 in the World Skateboarding Ranking made the Japanese team the strongest prospects of the Women’s division.
With two of those nine failing to make it beyond the quarterfinal stages and several newcomers knocking on the door, the Japanese coaching squad have several selection headaches ahead of them as the Road to LA28 progresses.
In the Men’s division, Japan delivered a clean podium sweep but it was far from a foregone conclusion- while Sora Shirai held onto his lead from halfway through the Best Trick section, compatriots Kairi Netsuke and Toa Sasaki were at the bottom of the leaderboard until the very last two tricks of the event took them into second and third places respectively in a cliffhanger finale.
Women’s finals was absolutely dominated by Australian teenager Chloe Covell, who had the performance of her young life to date.
She led from early on in proceedings and put the question of victory to bed with her first Best Trick before cementing the result with her final one for a 22-point margin of victory, the largest ever on the World Skateboarding Tour.
In second came Japan’s dynamic, energised and ultra-consistent Yumeka Oda, followed by a first-ever podium place for China’s Chenxi Cui in her 8th finals to date.
With a shared prize purse of $200,000 and vital World Skateboarding Ranking points garnered from this evenings grand finale, the World Skateboarding Tour now departs Rome headed for Asunción later this year for the 2026 World Championships which will frame how 2027 develops for all the skateboarders concerned!
