CNN
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With the highest average population in the world, spotlessly clean streets and a national reputation for enforcing the rules, Japan might not immediately be thought of as a skater’s paradise.

But as events in Paris this week have shown once again, Japanese teenage girls are the best when it comes to women’s skating.

For the second consecutive Olympic Games, Team Japan dominated the street event – ​​and it could do the same in the park category starting August 6.

Fourteen-year-old Coco Yoshizawa’s late surge helped her beat compatriot Liz Akama, 15, to claim the gold medal at La Concorde Urban Park, Paris on Sunday. The pair’s scores were far ahead of the rest.

“People in their teenage years can actually perform at such a high level and perform at the Olympics and I think that’s amazing,” Yoshizawa told the AP after performing a major track trick that crowned her Olympic champion.

On Monday, 25-year-old street hero Yuto Horigame defended his Olympic title with a near-perfect score, narrowly beating Americans Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston.

Horigame and Team Japan have long been seen as favourites for the Paris Olympics, following the sport’s spectacular debut at their home Games in Tokyo three years ago.

At the time, Momoji Nishiya, then 13 years old, captivated the Japanese public when she outpaced her competitors and won the first gold medal in the women’s street competition at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.

Sakura Yosozumi, then 19, and Kokona Hiraki, then 12, won the women’s park event in Tokyo 2021. Britain’s Sky Brown, then 13, took bronze. Brown happens to be half-Japanese. All three are competing in this year’s park event.

“Because there is no age limit for skateboarding in the Olympics, any child can participate,” Hiraki, the youngest Olympic medalist since 1936, told CNN in July.

“There are a lot of young skaters at the Olympics and every year more and more good skaters are joining. I get to compete again this time, so I want to enjoy it and I want people to see how cool and fun skateboarding is.”

The rise of Japanese skateboarders is surprising in a country where public demonstrations of the sport are generally frowned upon.

Skating is prohibited by law in busy areas and is usually limited to skate parks, making it difficult for beginning skaters to train in non-designated areas.

Combined with the aging of Japan’s population (in 2023, Japan’s birth rate hit a record low), this could lead to the mass demise of most sports.

But the Olympics have given youth more exposure and resources. The number of skate parks in the country has nearly doubled to 475 since 2021, according to the Japan Skatepark Association. After another impressive medal haul, there could be room for even more growth.

“Japan used to be about 10 to 15 years behind the U.S. in terms of (skateboarding) technology,” pioneering Japanese skateboarder Junnosuke Yonesaka told CNN. Yonesaka has been the face of the country’s skate scene since the ’90s.

“But the number of skateparks has increased rapidly since the 2000s. There are now more parks with sections that resemble those in official competitions, with high (ramps) and long rails, creating an environment where skaters can regularly practice difficult skills from an early age.

“I believe this has led to (team Japan) acquiring difficult skills that lead to higher scores.”

Apart from Japan, female skateboarding in both categories is dominated by teenage athletes.

Bronze on the streets in Paris went to popular 16-year-old Brazilian Rayssa Leal, who became her country’s youngest ever Olympic medallist at the previous Games in Tokyo, while 14-year-old Cui Chenxi of China just missed out in fourth place.

During the upcoming park event, 11-year-old Zhang Haohao of China will become the youngest competitor at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the youngest competitor ever from China and the second-youngest competitor ever.

Other young competitors include 10-year-old Filipino prodigy Mazel Paris Alegado, who competed at last year’s Asian Games, and 14-year-old Australian Arisa Trew, who has broken world records with her tricks.

But most importantly, Hiraki, who turns 16 next month, reiterated that skateboarding must not lose sight of the primary reason for its existence: the culture.

“I am happy and angry at the same time that it is recognized as an Olympic sport,” she said.

“It’s great that skateboarding is becoming more popular all over the world. But skateboarding was originally something to have fun with, and I don’t like it becoming a competition and everyone doing it with a sense of rivalry. It was a bit complicated because I had both feelings.”