This week’s World Skate Park World Championships in Sáo Paulo have been underway for a few days now and we couldn’t be more excited for open qualifiers to start tomorrow. After 3 days of official practice, fans and athletes alike are ready to witness some of the world’s best compete for valuable points leading into the Olympic race. With 160 skateboarders, coming from 32 nations, it is a diverse group. Skateboarders ranging from Sky Brown to Shaun White and Pedro Barros are just as excited. Not only from a competitive standpoint, but also because of the inspiration and belief that seeing these athletes can spread across the country and world.

The contest is located at the Vans Skatepark in Av. Queiroz Filho, 1365 – Alto Pinheiros. Entrance to watch the contest is free and their will be live music and food trucks starting tomorrow.

"Brazilian skateboarding lives a very cool moment. We already occupy an important space internationally and now we are spreading it here in Brazil as well. The World Cup is the most important championship in 2019 and it's amazing to be able to have it here in my country. I hope many children can go to the park, watch on television, get inspired and believe that they can also live from skateboarding. May it be another opportunity for everyone to know the true essence of skateboarding. This is our mission, all the rest is just putting the skateboards under our feet and have fun,” says Pedro Barros talking about the impact of an event like this in Brazil.

Pedro Barros: pic credits by Pablo Vaz

Sky Brown, who’s only 11 years old, also hopes to inspire. “Every time I compete I get to see and hang out with all of my other skate friends - it’s like a big reunion!  It’s awesome to be around a group of girls who are all following their dreams - I hope girls around the world hear about this and think they can do it too.”

Sky Brown: pic credits by Pablo Vaz

"São Paulo concentrates one of the largest communities of skateboarders in the world and it is our duty to support such a democratic sport. Showing the evolution of skateboarding in Brazil and in the state of São Paulo fills us with pride", said João Doria, governor of the state of São Paulo.

"The city of São Paulo is proud to host this event for its vocation. We have 9 million skateboarders throughout Brazil and more than one million here in the city only. So it is also important not only to create the infrastructure for the sport practice, but also to encourage events like this which put our city and our state in the world skateboarding roadmap", pointed out Mayor Bruno Covas on the relevance of the event to the city. It is expected for the competition to receive up to 200 athletes in search for the world title, which closes the first Olympic window for the category and will set the pre-classified athletes to the second window, which takes place until May, 2020.

"The realization of the World Cup in Brazil is not only an achievement of sports management in the structural aspect. It is thanks to the acknowledgement that World Skate has on the work of the Brazilian Skate Confederation that we are achieving all this. It is very important to give skateboarders an atmosphere with the warmth of the Brazilian fans in the most important Park competition in the season. No doubts, this event will be a landmark", says Eduardo Musa, president of the Brazilian Skate Confederation.

“This World Championship is the last park event of season #1 on the Road to Tokyo and we are pleased that it will take place in one of the skateboarding leading countries. We are confident that Brazil will set the benchmark in the next years’ skateboarding scene and that the cooperation with CBSK and STU Platform will be a fruitful one for the development of the sport” says Sabatino Aracu, President of World Skate.

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

THURSDAY - 09/12
8:45am - 6:00pm: REGISTRATION
9:00 am – 9:30 am: Women’s Global Open Qualifier free practice
9:30am - 12:10pm: Women’s Global Open Qualifier 
12:10pm - 1:10pm: Men’s Global Open Qualifier free practice
1:10pm - 5:50pm: Men’s Global Open Qualifier
5:50 pm – 6:25 pm – Women's Pre-seed Practice
6:25 pm – 7:00 pm – Men's Pre-seed Practice

FRIDAY - 09/13
8:45am- REGISTRATION
9:00am - 10:00am: Women’s Quarterfinals Practice
10:00am - 1:00pm - Women’s Quarterfinals
1:00pm - 1:45pm: Men's & Women’s Semifinals Pre-Seed Practice
1:45pm - 2:45pm: Men’s Quarterfinals Practice
2:45pm - 5:45pm: Men’s Quarterfinals
5:45pm - 6:25pm: Women’s Semifinals practice
6:25pm - 7:05pm: Men’s Semifinals practice

SATURDAY - 09/14
8:45am- REGISTRATION
9:00am - 9:50am: Women’s Semifinals practice
9:50am - 12:10pm: Women’s Semifinals
12:10pm - 12:25pm: Pause for skatepark cleaning
12:25pm - 1:15pm: Men’s Semifinals practice
1:15pm - 3:35pm: Men’s Semifinals
3:35pm - 4:50pm: Women’s Finals
4:50pm - 5:30pm: Men’s Finals practice
5:30pm - 6:00pm: Women’s Award Ceremony

SUNDAY - 09/15
8:45am- REGISTRATION
9:00am - 10:00am: Men’s Finals practice
10:00am - 10:15am: Men’s Finals Official Warm Up
10:15am - 11:30am: Men’s Finals
11:30am - 12:00pm: Awards Ceremony

LIVE STREAMING SCHEDULE ON WWW.WORLDSKATE.TV (BRAZIL LOCAL TIME)

Saturday 12:00pm - 6pm

Sunday 9:00am - 2pm

COMPETITION FORMAT

PICS CREDITS: PIERO CAPANNINI