Urban sports come together in an unprecedented event to define classifications for Paris 2024

For more than a decade, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been working hard on the renewal, credibility and sustainability of Olympism. What begins today in Shanghai is another step forward in that direction of keeping the Games close to young people. Several of the best freestyle BMX cyclists in the world, b-boys and b-girls, skaters and climbers are meeting starting this Thursday for a unique multi-sport event of its kind: the Olympic Qualification Series (OQS).

For the first time, athletes from these four sports will compete together in the same tournament in a single urban park. Shanghai, People’s Republic of China, will host the first of the two dates of the OQS. Then the action will move to Budapest in June to define those who will participate in the next Olympic Games. In total, more than 150 places for Paris 2024 will be awarded.

“We will have two fantastic host cities, all the action in an urban environment, with a festival atmosphere, musical culture and sports that come together,” celebrated Kit McConnell, sports director of the International Olympic Committee.

Australian Logan Martin and British Charlotte Worthington top the freestyle BMX bike chart, while Leonardo Veddriq, from Indonesia, and Nonaka Miho, from Japan, are climbing’s main attractions for this opening date.

In skateboarding, there will be Olympic medalists such as Sky Brown, the youngest British athlete to climb an Olympic podium in history; and the Japanese Horigome Yuto, the great champion of Tokyo 2020. Breaking, the discipline that will make its Olympic debut in Paris 2024, completes the menu at this show. B-Girl Ami and B-Boy Jeffro and Logistx, from the United States, will fight on the asphalt of China before heading to Budapest to secure their passage to the French capital by July.

Both the IOC and the local organizers hope that the event will generate a lot of positive repercussions and interaction with fans: “This is a very special project. It helps us highlight important innovations in the Olympic program. It began in Tokyo with proposals for new sports. Younger, more urban and more women. The Paris Games will be the first Olympic Games with total gender equality in history,” McConnell added.