18 May 2024 – Finals weekend is taking place at the first-ever Olympic Qualifier Series event in Shanghai, where athletes from four sports are trying to secure precious points in their quest to reach Paris 2024.

Athletes are competing in breaking, BMX freestyle, skateboarding and sport climbing in an Urban festival environment, and International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach is in Shanghai to see a perfect blend of communities.

“This is offering the younger generation their sports in the Olympic programme but it’s a two-way street,” said President Bach.

“We have these new young sports on the programme and these sports have a worldwide stage which otherwise they would not have. We saw in the last Olympic Games, and are seeing here today, how these two communities are getting together, enriching each other. “

The winners of the BMX Freestyle Park events were decided on Saturday. In the Men’s Anthony Jeanjean of France showed in Shanghai how he could thrive in Paris while Chinese riders thrilled the crowd with a 1-2-3 in the Women’s event led by Sun Sibei.

The action was watched by IOC Member and Chair of the IOC Esports and Gaming Liaison Group David Lappartient, who praised how the sports have been brought together: “It’s really important to have the wider kind of tournament all together. It’s great to be here in Shanghai – they’ve done an amazing job aggregating these four sports.”

Saturday’s other finals in Shanghai were in Sport Climbing. Indonesian Veddriq Leonardo came out on top in the Men’s Speed Climbing while China’s Yafei Zhou was quickest in the women’s final.

The Skateboarding finals take place on Sunday in both the Street and Park disciplines, while Breaking was the last of the four sports to get underway in Shanghai, ahead of its Olympic debut in Paris. Sixteen B-Girls and sixteen B-Boys have qualified for finals day.

After Sunday’s final day of action in Shanghai, the athletes will seek more points at the second and final Olympic Qualifier Series event in Budapest next month (June 20-23).

An equal gender split of 464 athletes from 120 National Federations are competing in this first-ever Olympic Qualifier Series (Shanghai-Budapest). In total, over 150 quota places for Paris 2024 will be allocated following the Series.

You can watch the action from Shanghai live on Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices. Check out schedules for the Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 here: Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 | Shanghai – Schedule & Results.

Olympic Information Service photos and text from the Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 here: Olympic Information Service