World Skate Games 2024 - Skateboard Slalom World Championship Report

Following the debut of Slalom Skateboarding at World Skate Games 2022 in Argentina - this second time around in 2024 brought out an incredible number of the top talent from 12 countries - with a total of 60 men and 27 women- determined by a combination of pre-qualified World Ranking seeding and national quota selections from around the globe.

The world was excited to watch the events play out in real-time over the live-streaming webcast provided on Worldskate.tv and the athletes were eager to bring their A-game to this epic gathering with World Championship titles as the ultimate prize.

Live commentary was provided by Maria Carrasco so the world could follow along with the excellent multi-cam coverage over the long weekend of racing. The replay of the 3-day event is available online at the Worldskate.tv website.

The schedule called for three days of official competition - opening with the high-speed single-lane Giant Slalom, followed by two days of head-to-head format events Hybrid and Tight Slalom. All riders were offered a full day of practice on the three unique courses so they could build their technical strategy and dial in their gear for each. The host town of Chieti was exceptional as the setting - with both roads being in the centre of this medieval hilltop village and being freshly repaved for this World Championship event!

The weather was mostly cooperative – offering moderate temperatures - quite warm for the Giant Slalom and quite cool for the Tight and Hybrid Slalom days. Luckily an extra day was built into the plans in case of inclement weather - so when high wind and rain was forecast for the Hybrid Slalom day on Friday - it could easily be moved to the spare day on Sunday and all events were carried out without missing a beat. Huge thanks to the town officials and residents for allowing such a great time to be had in this beautiful location!

Giant Slalom kicked off this World Championship with the long steep road of wider set cone gates in a single-lane format. After launching off the ramp to start - and hitting approximately 50 kmph blasting around the gates through the finish line - racers had to make a hard left turn into an uphill runout to slow down - adding an extra challenge to this high-speed event. A missed gate would mean a DQ (disqualification) for that precious round and each cone displaced would add a .20 penalty to the rider’s time. Each rider had two qualifying runs and then the top 16 men and women received an additional final run to try to better their time. After that final run - the top three finishers are:

Joe McLaren USA (21.34) GOLD MEDAL/Giant Slalom World Champion 1st place

Orion Lehrmann USA (21.42) SILVER MEDAL 2nd place

Arturs Liskovs LAT (21.62) BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place

Karolina Vojtova CZE (23.33) GOLD MEDAL/Giant Slalom World Champion 1st place

Lynn Kramer USA (23.35) SILVER MEDAL 2nd place

Kathrin Sehl GER (23.70) BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place

After a day off for inclement weather, the competition resumed with the Tight Slalom. Everyone moved down to the lower road just after the hard left of the Giant Slalom runout and to the right of the piazza in the centre of town to the site of the dual-lane head-to-head competition. The Tight Slalom called for close-set gates ranging from 1.8 to 2.1 metres - challenging racers to hold their line, stay clean and beat their opponent through a series of elimination rounds. Each lane had a launch ramp start with a cadence of four warning beeps (the 4th being random) to blast off into each heat. An early pull added a stiff time-penalty to the rider’s time and each cone displaced during their run carried a .1 penalty added to their time. This dual-lane course also featured a curve in the road three-quarters down before the finish line - upping the level of technical challenge with some of the top riders hitting times in the 14 second range!

Head-to-head racing started with qualifying rounds - two runs for each rider - and the field was cut for both men and women to the top 16 placings. This put the pressure on from the beginning to either make the cut or sit down for the rest of the day. The riders qualifying in places 9-16 were allowed another round of runs (one in each lane) to improve their final time placing within that grouping for the final ranking. The top 8 went on to the final elimination rounds working their way through to the final four to race-out for the podium spots. It was full-on action from start to finish truly but in the end the top finishers were:

Gustavs Gailitis LAT - GOLD MEDAL/Tight Slalom World Champion 1st place

Joe McLaren USA - SILVER MEDAL 2nd place

Toms Dreiblats LAT - BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place

Karolina Vojtova CZE - GOLD MEDAL/Tight Slalom World Champion 1st place

Endija Ruja LAT - SILVER MEDAL 2nd place

Kathrin Sehl GER - BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place

Following the format of the Tight Slalom - this Hybrid Slalom event offered a new course with a combination of even wider set gates along with tighter set stingers - using the same stretch of road. This highly technical arrangement called for a new strategy to ensure the same goal - staying fast and clean - making it into the top 16 and hopefully onto the podium if all those things could fall into place just right! Here are the riders who rose to the top in this final day of competition:

Janis Kuzmins LAT - GOLD MEDAL/Hybrid Slalom World Champion 1st place

Gustavs Gailitis LAT - SILVER MEDAL 2nd place

Orion Lehrmann USA - BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place

Karolina Vojtova CZE - GOLD MEDAL/Hybrid Slalom World Champion 1st place

Anna Rezkova CZE - SILVER MEDAL 2nd place

Endija Ruja LAT - BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place

In keeping with the tradition of Slalom Skateboarding competitions - results from the three days of racing were compiled for an overall ranking of the competitors for entry into the ISSA World Ranking. Overall podium placings - Top 3 received medals and the Top 5 received a portion of the $10,000 cash prize purse for the Slalom Skateboarding World Championships at World Skate Games Italia 2024! Those top 5 finishers in both classes are:

Joe McLaren - GOLD MEDAL/Overall Slalom World Champion 1st place ($2000)

Gustavs Gailitis LAT - SILVER MEDAL 2nd place Overall ($1200)

Orion Lehrmann USA - BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place Overall ($800)

Janis Kuzmins LAT - 4th place Overall ($600)

Toms Dreiblats LAT - 5th place Overall ($400)

Karolina Vojtova CZE - GOLD MEDAL/Overall Slalom World Champion 1st place ($2000)

Endija Ruja LAT - SILVER MEDAL 2nd place Overall ($1200)

Lynn Kramer USA - BRONZE MEDAL 3rd place Overall ($800)

Anna Rezkova CZE - 4th place Overall ($600)

Kathrin Sehl GER - 5th place Overall ($400)

Still basking in the afterglow of such an amazing time - we are already looking forward to the next one! Thank you World Skate for this epic opportunity to showcase our sport once again!

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