The X Games are set to make their highly anticipated debut in Osaka on Friday, June 20 with a few new twists added to the elite action sports event in Japan.
For the first time since 2022, the event will be held in the Kansai region and will feature women's skateboard vert, a competition never previously contested at the X Games in Japan.
In the past three years, the X Games Japan were held in Chiba, near Tokyo. But the event has shifted to Kansai in part to take advantage of the buzz surrounding Expo 2025 in Osaka.
The June 20-22 X Games at Kyocera Dome will feature 12 events across three core disciplines: skateboarding, BMX and Moto X. After a day of practice on Friday, the competition gets going on Saturday.
For the host nation, skateboarding will be the prime focus. Japan has produced a record seven Olympic skateboarding medalists since the sport made its debut at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
A New Women's Event on the X Games Osaka Program
Skateboard vert features athletes performing aerial tricks on a vertical halfpipe ― a U-shaped ramp. Men's vert was included in the previous three events in Japan but women's wasn't on the program.
One of the gold medal favorites in the first women's skateboard vert competition held at the X Games in Japan will be 2024 vert world champion Arisa Trew.
The 15-year-old Trew was born in Australia to a Japanese mother and a Welsh father.
Trew, who competes for Australia, was the 2024 Paris Olympic gold medalist in skateboard park. She has collected five gold medals from the X Games, including one from Chiba 2024 in park.
Two-time X Games park gold medalist Sky Brown, whose father is British and mother is Japanese, is also taking part in the women's vert and should contend for gold.
Japan will pin its medal hopes on Mizuho Hasegawa and Asahi Kaihara.
Hasegawa won silver in vert at the 2024 X Games in Ventura, California, while Kaihara took the bronze.
Keep an Eye on Skateboard Street and Skateboard Park
Skateboard street takes place on a course simulating urban terrain using objects such as curbs, stairs, handrails and benches as obstacles. Competitors use these obstacles to perform a variety of tricks combining multiple maneuvers.
Skateboard park features obstacles such as ramps, bowls, quarter pipes and ledges.
Gold-medal hopefuls for Japan are Coco Yoshizawa, the Paris Olympic champion in women's skateboard street, and Sora Shirai, the men's gold medalist in the same event at the 2024 X Games in Chiba.
Kawakami is a Rising Star for Japan
In men's skateboard vert, all eyes will be on Japan's rising star, 10-year-old Ema Kawakami.
Kawakami became the youngest person to land a 900 when he did so at the age of 7 in August of 2022.
Considered one of the most difficult tricks in the sport, a "900" is when a skateboarder does a 2½-revolution aerial spin in midair before landing on the steep vertical ramp.
In the summer of 2024, at the age of 9, Kawakami became the first person to land three consecutive 900s, completing the feat at Tony Hawk's Vert Alert competition.
A Quick Overview of the BMX Events
BMX, or Bicycle Motorcross, is divided into three events at the X Games in Osaka. BMX Park, BMX Street and BMX Flatland.
In BMX Park, riders perform tricks in a large skatepark-style course with bowls, ramps, spines and quarter pipes.
BMX Street mimics an urban street riding with rails, ledges, stairs and walls.
In BMX Flatland, riders perform balance-based tricks on a flat surface with no ramps or jumps. It is often described as "breakdancing on a bike" and requires control and creativity.
Japan's best medal hope in BMX park will be 2024 X Games silver medalist Rim Nakamura. Kio Hayakawa is also scheduled to compete in Osaka. He won the gold medal in BMX Flatland at the 2023 X Games.
There will also be a Moto X event at the X Games in Osaka where athletes perform high-risk tricks and stunts on specially modified dirt bikes.
The inaugural X Games were held in the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. X Games Asia have been held annually since 1998.
RELATED:
- Women's Street Skateboarding Yields Gold and Silver for Japan at Paris 2024
- X Games Chiba Entertains with Endless Array of Twists and Turns
Author: Jim Armstrong
The author is a longtime journalist who has covered sports in Japan for over 25 years. You can find his articles on SportsLook.
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