Paris time, July 29th, 10 am.
Today is the day of the men's skateboarding street competition.
Qualifying at 12 pm.
The final eight will compete at 5 pm.
Chen Shu arrived at the competition venue early in the morning, accompanied by Yu Wenhao, Cai Xiaolei and others.
Cui Chenxi, Zeng Wenhui, Zhu Yuanling and Zheng Haohao sat in a row, acting as cheerleaders, cheering for Chen Shu from time to time.
Because this could very well be a gold medal for their skateboarding team.
Except for these few people, no one else was aware of this, and there wasn't much hype in the outside world. There weren't many Chinese viewers watching this qualifying round either.
The competition hadn't started yet, and the athletes were free to practice on the course.
After yesterday's performance, many of the competitors were clearly wary of Chen Shu.
Everyone looked at him strangely.
Although practice doesn't represent the final competition results.
But Chen Shu's skills... are undeniable.
This is their biggest competitor for winning the medal.
Whoosh!
Chen Shu, wearing headphones, immersed himself in the world of music, skating casually.
He didn't show off his skills, but was familiarizing himself with the course once again.
He imagined the moves he would be doing for the timed run, the big moves in street...
Time passed minute by minute, and the two commentators from CCTV were already in place.
Che Lin and Yuan Fei.
The former, having participated in the first Asian Indoor Games and won gold, was dubbed "China's First Skateboarder".
He frequently participates in various domestic and international skateboarding competitions.
He has won numerous championship trophies.
And the latter, Yuan Fei, nicknamed "Skateboard Saint".
He is the number one host in China's skateboarding world.
He is also a special commentator for CCTV.
"Che, before the competition starts, give everyone a rundown on the history of skateboarding!"
"Okay, skateboarding became popular in the last Tokyo Olympics!"
Che Lin had obviously done his homework before coming.
"Besides skateboarding, there are many other sports that young people love, like rock climbing, breaking and so on!"
"As International Olympic Committee President Bach said: We want to bring sports to today's young people."
"And this group of young people has many choices. We no longer expect them to embrace us, instead, it's our responsibility to embrace them."
The Olympic movement's trend of youthfulness is unstoppable. A new era of sports for young people is quietly emerging.
Just like esports gradually joining the Olympics, holding World Cups.
The whole world is catering to the young market.
Because ratings, derivative value, and the sports industry depend on them to promote it.
"Speaking of the origin of skateboarding, we have to mention another extreme sport - surfing!"
"In the 1950s, surfing swept America."
"But it is greatly influenced by objective factors such as season and weather. It is not realistic to practice and compete in surfing at any time!"
"So there were some brilliant 'surfing enthusiasts' who drained swimming pools and filled them with water, standing on a 50*10*50 wheeled board, playing 'pool surfing'. This is the embryonic form of skateboarding, and it is also the origin of the 'bowl' project in skateboarding!"
"After decades of development, skateboarding is not just a 'substitute' for surfing, it has gradually become the favorite of young people around the world who pursue sunshine, freedom and passion."
"They not only perform high-difficulty tricks in the bowl, using skateboarding as a means of transportation."
"They also take to the streets, using railings, stairs, platforms and other natural props to complete all sorts of unimaginable high-difficulty tricks."
"This has led to the development of three main styles of skateboarding - bowl, freestyle and street!"
"And the upcoming street competition, also known as the extreme skateboarding event, while bowl is more competitive!"
"Street moves are considered the extreme of skateboarding!"
"..."
The two commentators were narrating, and the qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympic men's street skateboarding was officially underway.
Chen Shu was the 12th to compete, with a total of 22 contestants divided into four groups.
Japan's Yuto Horigome and Gin Yun Onodera, and America's Nyjah Huston were all in the same group as Chen Shu.
It was a veritable group of death!
So they could sit on the side and watch the others perform first.
Each group had to complete both modes before moving on to the next group.
In other words, the further you go, the more pressure you face.
Because the scores for the previous rounds have already been released.
And the five judges responsible for scoring included a Chinese person - Tian Jun.
The godfather of Chinese skateboarding athletes, the promoter of skateboarding in China, with high global recognition.
The first group of athletes were warming up, and the camera was on them.
Soon, the first Australian skater Sean O'Neill took to the stage.
His first task was to show off his skills in a 45-second timed run around the course.
nollie back foot slide + heelflip kickflip 360, nollie back foot slide + kickflip heel flip 360... After two simple professional moves, he started to do a high-difficulty nollie back foot slide + cabalerio airborne human board 360!
This is back-foot riding on the board, sliding backwards, and then rotating 360 degrees with the board, which is quite challenging.
Plop!
Sure enough, the athlete fell.
But it's okay, he can continue doing tricks.
If there are high-scoring moves later, he can still get points.
Unfortunately, Sean was probably the first warm-up player, and his condition was not good.
After falling three times in a row, he ended his timed opportunity for this round.
13.41 points!
A very low score.
It's obvious that Sean is not satisfied.
This athlete is very famous in the skateboarding world, especially in China.
He often comes to Asia to compete, especially Shanghai.
But because he was the first to go, he hadn't really gotten into the groove yet.
If he keeps going like this in the second round, he'll get a low score.
This section has two chances.
After the first round for all 6 athletes, they start the second round.
One by one they slid, and soon the timed scores for the first group were all out.
The highest score was from an Argentinian athlete, who got 88.53 points!
This is a relatively high score for the first timed run, and he completed it very well.
Within the 45-second time limit, he only made one small mistake, landing with one foot, but didn't fall. This will only deduct points, not result in a low score.
He also completed two high-difficulty tricks, which are bonus points.
"We see the next group is coming up!"
"The second group is full of superstars!"
"And there's our young Chinese player Chen Shu, he's only 13 years old!"
"He qualified for Paris directly with a first-place finish at the Shanghai Skateboarding Qualification Tournament in April!"
"He beat the world's number one, Gin Yun Onodera, and the American top player Eaton!"
"So in this event, he should have the strength to challenge for a medal!"
Yuan Fei spoke quite politely.
Che Lin said on the side, "But skateboarding is so unpredictable, even the world number one can't guarantee that they'll make it!"
"Because the error rate is very high, so let's not put any pressure on Chen Shu!"
"The players in his group are all very strong!"
"We see the first player to go is the current world number one in street skateboarding, Gin Yun Onodera!"
Che Lin's voice clearly raised a notch when he mentioned Onodera.
After all, this is the current number one.
"He's 14 years old this year, but he shocked the skateboarding world at the age of 10, dubbed a super genius!"
"He won his first world championship at the age of 12 and is extremely powerful, a strong contender for gold in this event!"
Che Lin's introduction was not finished yet, Gin Yun Onodera had already slid out.
After three high-difficulty tricks, he went for a big one, a 720 flip with a mid-air spin, and cracked the skateboard under his feet.
"Ugh~~~"
Commentator Che Lin sighed regretfully, "Unfortunately, this round's score is probably wasted!"
In a timed race, time is paramount.
The more tricks you complete, the more bonus points you get.
If the skateboard breaks, you have to change skateboards, and the back and forth basically won't leave enough time.
So, this round he only got 49.5!
Then the American player Huston took to the stage, and Che Lin started to praise him in the live stream.
After all, this was the world number one from his era, his absolute idol.
Then this round, he went even bigger than Gin Yun Onodera.
17.89 points!
The score left Che Lin silent for 10 seconds, and Yuan Fei quickly said, "It's okay, there's still the second round!"
The players in the second group went on one by one.
Perhaps because there was still another chance, they were all eager to challenge themselves, many of them trying high-difficulty tricks.
Except for the defending champion Yuto Horigome, who was in front of Chen Shu. He completed the timed run with zero errors.
89.72 points!
Currently the first place in the timed section.
"That's the stability of a defending champion!"
"Yuto Horigome may not be the strongest here, but he's definitely the most stable veteran!"
Che Lin was boasting again.
Yuan Fei next to him looked at Chen Shu who was about to take to the stage, and quickly said, "Next up, we have our young Chinese player, Chen Shu!"
"Let's cheer him on!"
"Chen Shu completed two 720s in the qualifying round!"
"If he can complete them again this time... then this run can also get over 80 points!"
Che Lin immediately recovered and began to focus on Chen Shu's performance.
And at this moment, all the spectators and athletes in the arena were focused on Chen Shu.
The audience were watching the competition, they didn't know Chen Shu's strength.
But the players, they all wanted to see.
What kind of high-difficulty tricks can Chen Shu do in this official competition...
Every player was both worried and excited. They were worried that Chen Shu was too strong, his moves too explosive.
And the excitement was whether Chen Shu would be incredibly awesome, to witness the birth of a super-explosive move.
Some even had a malicious hope in their hearts, hoping that Chen Shu would fall.
If he cracked his skateboard, it would be even better.
That was exactly what Jagger, who was humiliated by Chen Shu yesterday, was thinking.
He looked a little nervous, his expression tense, his lips pursed, as he watched Chen Shu stand on the starting platform.
Chen Shu didn't slide directly, but looked at Yuto Horigome, Gin Yun Onodera and the others in the same group.
And Jagger, who hadn't yet competed, suddenly smiled.
"..."
Everyone was baffled by this smile.
What's with this guy, suddenly smiling at us? And then, the next second -
Just as those few didn't know why Chen Shu was smiling, they saw Chen Shu put down his skateboard.
"Oh, shit!"
Jagger yelled out loud!
He finally knew what Chen Shu was going to do.
Explode the field!
This guy invented a new technique right from the start.
Che Lin looked at Chen Shu jumping off the starting platform and was stunned for a moment.
What kind of opening move is this?