Nyjah Huston has been the world’s preeminent skateboarder for the better part of a decade. Now, he goes into the Olympic year as the three-time reigning world champion.
Huston, a 24-year-old who made his X Games debut at 11 and earned his first X Games title at 16, won his fourth overall world street title in Sao Paulo on Sunday. He topped an eight-man final field combining scores from competition runs and best trick attempts for 36.9 points. Huston had the top scores between two runs and the single highest-scoring trick.
Japan’s Yuto Horigome took second with 36.6 points, followed by Portugal’s Gustavo Ribeiro at 36.2.
Earlier, Brazilians Pamela Rosa and Rayssa Leal went one-two in the women’s event. The top American was Mariah Duran in fifth.
Huston already led the U.S. Olympic qualifying rankings going into the event and looks destined to make the team next year. No more than three Americans can qualify per gender per event in skateboarding, which makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo.
The U.S. has the reigning men’s world champs in both Olympic events. Hawaiian Heimana Reynolds repeated as world champion in the park event last week, also in Sao Paulo.
Huston won the world title less than two weeks after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace at a February 2017 house party altercation, according to NBC Los Angeles.
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