(L-R) Luiz Francisco (Brazil), Heimana Reynolds and Pedro Quintas (Brazil) posing during the award ceremony at the 2019 World Skate Park Skateboarding World Championship on Sept. 15, 2019 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
With Olympic qualifying on the line, park skateboarder Heimana Reynolds keeps doing what he needs to do to assure himself of a spot in his sport’s debut at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
After taking first place at an Olympic qualifier in China in July, Reynolds repeated the effort Sunday in Sao Paulo, Brazil, putting down a remarkably clean 88.00 in his final run at the World Skate Park World Championships. Already the top-ranked skater in the Olympic rankings going into Sao Paulo, Reynolds will retain his lead as he hopes to finish as one of the Top 3 athletes from Team USA at the end of the qualifying period in June, thus qualifying for Tokyo.
The 21-year-old from Hawaii was in fourth place after the semifinals with a final score of 84.70. But that wasn’t nearly enough to win Sunday as all the skaters upped their game. It was an emotional event for the four Brazilian skaters competing on home soil. Pedro Barros, second in the Olympic rankings and the No. 1 skater after the semifinals, was the early leader and had two runs to try and regain the lead but couldn’t complete either. His countrymen, Luiz Francisco (85.50) and Pedro Quintas (85.00), finished second and third, respectively.
Team USA’s Thomas Schaar (84.60) was fifth and Tate Carew (84.20) was seventh. Carew came into Brazil 16th in the Olympic rankings. The top 16 will qualify for Tokyo with a maximum of three per country.
Olympic qualification points will also be on the line in the street skateboarding world championships, which begin Sept. 18 in Sao Paulo.
Todd Kortemeier is a sportswriter, editor and children’s book author from Minneapolis. He is a contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.