Skateboarding

Shaun White saw his run at the 2019 World Skateboarding Championships end in the semifinal round Saturday in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 

The 33-year-old finished 13th among 20 remaining skaters. Only the top eight moved on to Sunday's final, and White missed the cut by 1.5 points with a score of 82.00, according to TeamUSA.org. He was competing to gauge where he stood among the world's best skaters ahead of skateboarding's Olympic debut next summer in Tokyo.

"This will be the deciding event," White told SporTV following Thursday's qualifying round. "I basically told myself I'd go here and give it everything I have, and then, after this competition, see how I stack up with the other skaters and then make the decision to fully commit to the Olympics."

White also admitted that "it's been difficult" to translate the tricks he has mastered on vert (halfpipe) ramps to the bowl for park skating, which is necessary because the only two featured Olympic skateboarding events are park and street for both men and women. 

While White has earned five medals (two gold, two silver, one bronze) as a skateboarder at the X Games, he competed in vert and hasn't participated since 2011. Should he first decide to try for Tokyo and then qualify, it would be his fifth trip to the Olympics but first as a skateboarder.

Along with the competitors in Sao Paulo, White was previously seen sharpening his skating skills with the legendary Tony Hawk:

Stop what you're doing and watch the two legends @tonyhawk and @shaunwhite team up. 🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/iiyOWvtmvT

— NBC Sports (@NBCSports) August 1, 2019

White became a household name as an Olympic snowboarder. He has competed in snowboarding in four Olympics (2006, '10, '14, '18) and notched three gold medals—all in halfpipe.    

Shaun White did just enough in the quarterfinals of the men's park event at the 2019 World Skateboarding Championships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Friday to qualify for Saturday's semifinals.

With a score of 80.00, White finished 16th among the 32 competitors, making him one of 17 skateboarders to reach the semis.

Here is a rundown of the top 17 finishers from the quarterfinal round with full results available at WorldSkate.org:

1. Thomas Schaar (USA): 87.00
2. Keegan Palmer (AUS): 86.50
3. Murilo Peres (BRA): 86.00
4. Mateus Hiroshi (BRA): 85.50
5. Tristan Rennie (USA): 84.67
6. Tate Carew (USA): 84.30
7. Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg (SWE): 84.00
8. Alessandro Mazzara (ITA): 83.50
9. Liam Pace (USA): 83.00
10. Alex Sorgente (USA): 82.80
11. Ayumu Hirano (JPN): 82.70
12. Tyler Edtmayer (GER): 82.50
13. Steven Yancy Pinero (PRI): 82.20
14. Pedro Quintas (BRA): 82.15
15. Kieran Woolley (AUS): 82.00
16. Shaun White (USA): 80.00
17. Ivan Federico (ITA): 79.50

The United States' six semifinal qualifiers were the most of any country, while host nation Brazil was second with three.

White took a slight step back after finishing 13th in the open qualifiers Thursday, but he will still have a chance to compete in Sunday's final if he can finish inside the top eight Saturday.

With a good finish in Brazil, White can improve his spot in the world rankings in hopes of qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where park and street skateboarding will make their Olympic debuts.

White, 33, is best known for his excellence in snowboarding as the three-time Olympic gold medalist in the halfpipe, most recently talking gold at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

He also has plenty of experience in skateboarding, though, including five X Games medals. White has won two golds, two silvers and one bronze in the vert, although vert will not be part of the Olympic program.

Instead, White has transitioned to park in hopes of becoming part of a small and elite class of athletes who have competed in both the Summer and Winter Olympics.

While switching disciplines is a major challenge, White told Olympic.org in February that it added to the enjoyment:

"It's a different type of skating [in Tokyo] to what I did previously, which was vert skating, the big ramps. Now I'm doing bowl skating which is rad, it’s so much fun.

"I don't think I'd have the same enthusiasm if it was vert. Vert is a similar mentality to halfpipe, skating bowl is more like slopestyle, so there's some variety. Every park you show up to is totally different, there's a new line, something to be sought out."

It isn't often that White is lacking in terms of experience against his competition, but that has been the case in Brazil. Even so, he finds himself one step away from the finals.

White is undoubtedly an underdog given where he finished in the qualifiers and quarterfinals, but finishing in the top eight Saturday would give him a big boost in his quest to make the 2020 Summer Olympics as a skateboarder.

Shaun White is one skate closer to qualifying for the 2020 Olympics as skateboarding makes its Olympic debut in Tokyo.

The 33-year-old is in Sao Paulo, Brazil, competing in the World Skateboarding Championships. Thursday, White placed 13th among 72 riders in the Men's Open Qualifiers with a score of 77.37. 

ayumuhirano1129 and I both made it through open qualifiers today!! Stoked to see a fellow snowboarder out here skating in Brazil. One round down, two more to go before finals stay tuned. #skateboarding pic.twitter.com/f1tJJqapnx

— Shaun White (@shaunwhite) September 13, 2019

The top 19 skaters advanced to the quarterfinal. Below is a peek at the top 20:

    

Men's Open Qualifiers Results

1. Thomas Schaar, USA: 84.45

2. Edouard Damestoy, France: 82.33

3. Liam Pace, USA: 80.01

4. Pedro Carvalho, Brazil: 80.00

5. Ayumu Hirano, Japan: 79.50

6. Matheus Mello, Brazil: 79.30

7. Steven Yancy Pinero, Puerto Rico: 79.27

8. Tyler Edtmayer, Germany: 79.07

9. Mateus Hiroshi, Brazil: 78.00

10. Andy Anderson, Canada: 77.72

11. Kevin Kowalski, USA: 77.70

12. Oskar Rozenberg Hallberg, Sweden: 77.63

13. Shaun White, USA: 77.37

14. Adam Hopkins, Canada: 77.14

15. Kieran Woolley, Australia: 76.32

16. Italo Penarrubia, Brazil: 76.00

17. Luigi Cini, Brazil: 75.30

18. Zion Wright, USA: 75.11

19. Gavin Rune Bottger, USA: 75.00

20. Augusto Akio, Brazil: 74.75

For full results, visit WorldSkate.org.

     

White is already a decorated Olympian in snowboarding, legendary in the halfpipe and a three-time gold medalist.

As a skateboarder, White has competed in vert (halfpipe) at the X Games and medaled five times (two gold, two silver, one bronze).

However, vert won't be an event at the Olympics; rather, men's and women's park and street will be featured. Earlier Thursday, Time Brasil provided a glimpse into how White is transitioning into park-style skating:

LENDA NO BRASIL!

Tricampeão olímpico do snowboard, o americano @shaunwhite está no Brasil buscando pontos para os @JogosOlimpicos @Tokyo2020! Será que dá pra ele se classificar no 🛹? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/oKuJT5vZVk

— Time Brasil (@timebrasil) September 12, 2019

In July, White disclosed on TODAY that he intended to participate in the World Skateboarding Championships.

"It's such a big decision," White continued when asked about Tokyo. "I've been having so much fun just skating around, and I got so inspired. I was like, 'Why don't I just compete a little and see what happens?' So after that, I'll probably make the big announcement what I'm gonna do."

Back in February 2018, at the PyeongChang Olympics, White told reporters "it would mean the world to me" to compete at the Olympics as a skateboarder while still keeping the door open to return as a snowboarder at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

In the immediate future, though, White just has to focus on Friday's quarterfinals. The competition's full schedule can be viewed here.

Ryan Sheehy filed a lawsuit against professional skateboarder Nyjah Huston following an alleged attack at a February 2017 house party that forced him to undergo reconstructive surgery.

TMZ Sports provided details from the suit Monday with Sheehy stating he suffered a broken nose and a cut above his left eye leading to "noticeable disfigurement." He said the injuries caused "immense pain" and forced him to miss work.

Sheehy, who's seeking damages from the lawsuit, said he was "jumped" during the party.

A representative for Huston released a statement from the skateboarder to TMZ about the incident after he was charged with felony battery in May 2017.

"My actions were a result of someone acting in an aggressive manner towards me and solely defensive in nature," the statement read. "I have the utmost faith in the process and believe that I will be fully exonerated as the truth emerges."

The charge carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison.

Huston has continued to compete following the allegations. He won a gold medal in the Skateboard Street event at the 2018 X Games and opened 2019 by taking first place in the Street League Skateboarding world championships in Rio de Janeiro last week.

Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk stopped by Bleacher Report to dissect some of his most famous tricks from videos posted on his Instagram.

Watch the video above to hear Tony Hawk's analysis and about his new mobile game Tony Hawk's Skate Jam. You can download the game for free here.

Connect to the stories, teams, athletes and highlights that make the game more than a game.

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Skateboarder Lizzie Armanto, 25, is breaking barriers. She is the first woman to complete Tony Hawk's 360-degree loop and became a character in his video game. Armanto has many skateboarding awards and hopes to represent Team USA when skateboarding debuts at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Learn more about Armanto in the video above.

    

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Download the free Bleacher Report app to catch all the moments that matter in one place. Get the app to get the game.

USA Skateboarding placed executive committee member Neal Hendrix on interim suspension Wednesday amid allegations that he had improper sexual contact with an underage skateboarder.

According to ESPN's Alyssa Roenigk, 25-year-old professional skateboarder Julie Lynn Kindstrand Nelson alleged that she performed sex acts on Hendrix upon his request when she was between the ages of 14 and 15.

Hendrix, who is now 45, was in his early 30s at the time of the alleged abuse.

Per Roenigk, Kindstrand Nelson detailed the allegations in a six-page letter to the Costa Mesa Police Department in California on Oct. 11 before also providing the letter to espnW, the U.S. Center for SafeSport, the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Hendrix is now under investigation by the Costa Mesa Police Department.

In the letter, Kindstrand Nelson wrote that Hendrix "masturbated in front of her, photographed and took videos of her while she was naked and showed her pornography involving underage girls."

She went on to write that Hendrix began bringing her back to his apartment for what he called "sex lessons" after meeting her at a California skatepark in 2006 and becoming her skateboarding mentor.

"I wanted to make sure that everybody in the skateboarding community is aware of what's going on," Kindstrand Nelson said. "For so long, so many people turned a blind eye."

She also offered a word of warning to young girls in sports:

"My experience with Neal was very traumatic. It has taken me several years to process what happened to me and many more years to find the courage to stand up and say something. I hope that other young girls who dream of being competitive athletes do not suffer the same fate. As young athletes, girls are very susceptible to sexual predators."

Kindstrand Nelson turned pro in 2007 under the name Julz Lynn, and she is planning to continue competitive skateboarding.

During her career so far, she most notably won bronze in skateboard park at the 2013 X Games.

Hendrix began skateboarding professionally in 1991, winning five career X Games medals.

Currently, Hendrix is the worldwide brand manager for action sports company Camp Woodward, but he has been placed on administrative leave amid the investigation by Costa Mesa police and SafeSport, an organization that helps sports entities with handling allegations of sexual abuse.

Dan Mancina is a skateboarder who just happens to be blind. How exactly does he skateboard? Watch above to see him defy the odds.  

Bleacher Report is your No. 1 stop for what’s trending in sports. You can count on B/R for all the hottest stories. From wild sports to the next big thing, don’t miss out.

Download the free Bleacher Report app to catch all the moments that matter in one place. Get the app to get the game.

To celebrate his 50th birthday on Saturday, skateboarding legend Tony Hawk made a video in which he did 50 tricks that he created over the years.

As seen in the following video, courtesy of RIDE Channel, Hawk did all 50 tricks in succession and celebrated by tossing his helmet at the end:

While Hawk was clearly exhausted, he proved he could still get the job done 36 years after turning professional.

Hawk is arguably the most popular and recognizable extreme sports athlete of all time. He completed the first known 900 (two and a half turns) in the sport.

He is also a hero to millennials due to his Tony Hawk's Pro Skater video game series, which debuted in 1999.

Samarria Brevard is many things. The 24-year-old SoCal native is a top female skater, an emerging style icon and a history-changing figure in a sport that has not always been kind to outsiders.

The “Serena Williams of skateboarding” can make a half-cab (aka Ollie 180) off a nine-stair look easy, make your grandma's bucket hat feel cool and make her way to the podium at the X Games, where early this year she became the first African-American woman to medal in the contest's 22-year history.

It was a monumental, career-making achievement. And as we approach the end of 2017, things don't appear to be slowing down for Brevard.

Last week, she turned pro for Enjoi—a seminal skateboard company founded in 2000 by street-tech genius Marc Johnson. The week before that, iconic shoe company Etnies welcomed her to its heralded skate team and announced a Samarria Brevard signature shoe. These are all firsts for an African-American woman.

What could possibly come next? Bleacher Report caught up with the hard-training, overalls-donning pro to talk high tops, professional pressures and what it's like to be a black woman in a sport historically dominated by skinny white dudes. 

Bleacher Report: The big news is that you just officially joined Etnies. These days, that team is so talented it's comparable to the Chicago Bulls in the '90s.

Samarria Brevard: Yeah!

 

B/R: And now you're a part of it.

SB: Etnies was one of the teams I wanted to get on as a kid. It's legendary. Their shoes always fit well and had STI foam padding [Etnies patented insoles] and all around were just really good shoes. Right now, the whole team is epic. Ryan Sheckler. Nick Garcia. Chris Joslin. Matt Berger. The team is stacked right now. All those dudes are so, so good.

 

B/R: Let's set the scene. When did you get the call?

SB: When I was back at home after the X Games. On my last run, I landed a Tre Flip [360-degree/full-cab kickflip] down the eight [eight-stair drop]. I was really pumped on that one, and ended up in second place. I made it home and they called that week.

 

B/R: Now you get to work with the Etnies STI lab to help design your own shoe. Any ideas so far?

SB: On my signature for the shoe will be my name and a dragonfly.

     

B/R: A dragonfly? Not exactly a gnarly skate symbol, like a hawk skull or a bulldog's head or a pentagram or something.

SB: I chose the dragonfly for my symbol because they're so colorful. I feel like they embody the aura of my soul.

 

B/R: Any other ideas?

SB: We have worked on some colors and a signature insole for a new team model coming out in 2018. It's pretty similar to the high top and I'm thinking cream or something having to do with red. It's a new mid top coming out in the spring that's probably most similar to the Jameson Vulc in a cream color. It'll probably be similar to the the Vegan high top I always skate, the Jameson HT.

 

B/R: And speaking of the HT—you seem a big fan of high tops, even when low-cut shoes are ruling the skatescape.

SB: [Laughs.] Yes!

 

B/R: Why high tops?

SB: I just personally like anything that's got a higher cut. Plus, I like basketball shoes. Right now, my favorites are the [Etnies] Jameson high tops, the Begans. Those shoes are super dope. They fit real nice on my foot, and there's the higher ankle support, plus you've got another barrier of protection, which is good. I've rolled my ankle a bunch, and it hurts.

 

B/R: The first hightop era stemmed from '80s basketball. You hoop, right?

SB: For eight years, four years before I started skating.

 

B/R: Is there any overlap between basketball and skateboarding?

SB: Footwork. At practice, we'd focus on ... where our feet should be. That's translated over to skating pretty well. Also, being flexible. Allowing your muscles and joints to stretch helps reduce injury. Every day, every practice, we all line up and stretch together.

 

B/R: Do you have a training regimen outside of skating?

SB: Yes. I have a trainer now, and we focus on strengthening my legs, so a lot of jumping exercises.

 

B/R: What did you wear to the gym? Basketball sneakers? Cross trainers? Not skate shoes?!

SB: I work out in Etnies Betas. They're super light with really comfortable padding for your feet. But back in the day, I didn't have other workout shoes, so I'd wear some Lakais.

 

B/R: There's a great shot of you flying over a nine-stair wearing red sneakers and a matching hat. Do you think about what to wear when skating?

SB: Oh, yeah. Whenever I film, I'm always trying to look the best I can. And I definitely don't know what my style is, but I want to look as cool as I can, at least to myself.

 

B/R: You're the first black woman on the Etnies team, so that's obviously new, but simply as a female skater, did you always feel a little on the outside?

SB: Growing up, I was definitely the only girl doing it. Going to new parks, it wasn't hard because I had my brother and his friends. Usually, people were surprised, but in a good way, like "Oh, she actually skates. That's dope."

 

B/R: Things have changed, haven't they?

SB: The amount of support that's coming out right now is amazing. Girls are skating a lot more. The stands are starting to fill up, and even just cruising around, you see girls a lot more. They're choosing to skate, and they could choose anything, like a bike or scooter. But they're choosing a skateboard. It's definitely growing in all types of ways.

 

B/R: Did you ever feel different because of your ethnicity? There are black skaters, and female skaters, but not a lot of black female skaters.

SB: If anyone ever had a problem, they never confronted me about it. Riverside has a good cultural mixture. There's a little bit of everything around here. The people that I came up around, we were a good group and it was just all about the skating.

      

B/R: It's a cliche that turning pro at anything—art, music, sports—can be both a dream and somewhat of a nightmare. What's it like to be a professional skateboarder?

SB: It's a new realm. There's definitely pressure. I'm not going out with friends as much to film—I'm going with the Etnies dudes and meeting people from the company. And that's because you have to get stuff done, you have to film. There's deadlines and all the pressures that come with that. But it's not pressure to a point where I can't handle it, because it's something I've done all my life. It's all about your work ethic. As long as you're doing what you need to do, the pressure's not gonna get to you.

 

B/R: You're training every day, but not at skateparks, which are ubiquitous where you grew up in SoCal.

SB: Honestly, I'm just over skateparks. I've been to so many, and they're fun, but it's nothing like the street. On the street, you have so many different dynamics that make it that much harder, but when you land a trick, it makes it that much more satisfying.

 

B/R: Let's end on what I know is a sensitive note. How do you feel about the whole "Serena Williams of Skateboarding" thing?

SB: I was not ready for that. It was something my friend put out there, and ESPN ran with it. I mean, am I really her caliber?

 

B/R: So how do you feel?

SB: Honored, obviously. It's Serena Williams. She's the greatest.

      

Cole Louison (IG) is a researcher at Bleacher Report and the author of The Impossible: Rodney Mullen, Ryan Sheckler, and the Fantastic History of Skateboarding.