International Olympic Committee

16 May 2024 – The first-ever Olympic Qualifier Series event is underway in Shanghai, where over the next few days athletes from four sports start their pursuit of the final places at Olympic Games Paris 2024.

Athletes are competing in breaking, BMX freestyle, skateboarding and sport climbing in Shanghai, and will also seek qualifying points at the second and final Olympic Qualifier Series event in Budapest next month (June 20-23).

The event started with preliminaries in two of the sports, skateboarding and sport climbing, ahead of a weekend of finals across all four sports. Every day the public can enjoy a festival-like mix of music, art, fashion and competition, in an immersive experience that brings the sports and their lifestyle together.

In women’s bouldering Ukrainian Ievgeniia Kazbekova made the best start to the quest to qualify for Paris 2024, climbing to the top of preliminary scoring with 99.8 points from a possible 100. Japanese climbers Futaba Ito and Miho Nonaka finished second and third.

Dohyun Lee from the Republic of Korea made the best start of the men’s bouldering with 25 points in all of his last three climbs. British climber Hamish McArthur finished second, with Spain’s Alberto Ginés López third.

In skateboarding, Japan’s Kairi Netsuke topped the standings in men’s street preliminaries ahead of American athletes Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston.

It was a good day for Japan’s Olympic hopefuls as Hiraki Kokona finished top of the women’s park preliminaries in Shanghai from her second of three runs. Her compatriot Mizuho Hasegawa ended the preliminaries in third place behind Arisa Trew of Australia.

An equal gender split of 464 athletes from 120 National Federations are competing in sport climbing (boulder & lead and speed), skateboarding (park and street), BMX freestyle and breaking. After this first-ever Olympic Qualifier Series (Shanghai-Budapest) 150 of the athletes competing will have qualified for Paris 2024.