Aurelien Giraud: The French street skateboard star embracing the big time in more ways than one 

Paris 2024

Known for his larger-than-life approach to skating, Giraud will lead the French team heading to the street skateboarding world championships in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where qualification for Paris 2024 continues.  

5 minBy Chloe Merrell
Aurelien Giraud in action

(2019 Getty Images)

If anyone needed proof that Aurelien Giraud is the real deal when it comes to French Olympic skateboarding hopes, then last year’s first Paris 2024 qualifier in Rome, Italy surely provided just that.

As the week-long competition rolled by the 24-year-old from Lyon continued to gather momentum before finding a whole other level in the final.

Like the gladiators of ancient times, Giraud duelled with world number Nyjah Huston as the last eight made their final bids to finish on top.

When the Frenchman threw down a perfect hardflip late kickflip over the course’s hubba with his fifth and final trick attempt the crowd rose to its feet in awe. Elated himself at having landed the trick Giraud turned to them after to soak in their applause and check to see if they were entertained.

However 12-time X Games winner Huston responded with a switch heel flip crooked grind and it was enough to see him victorious and Giraud handed second place.

Though it wasn't the win the Frenchman had been hoping for there was a lingering that something bigger had happened.

In keeping up with Huston enough to claim a podium spot, Giraud had shown that on the Olympic skateboard stage he had both the courage and the arsenal to go toe-to-toe with the best, and if there is to be any future medal talk his is a name that should be in the conversation.

Aurelien Giraud: Skate star with Olympic intentions

It is not all that surprising that when the contest demanded the most from him, Giraud rose to the occasion: it is a trait the skateboarder has flexed throughout his career.

His willingness to go big is what originally lured the skateboarder into the sport: “My father took me to the Lyon skatepark with roller skates and then I saw these adults skateboarding,” Giraud told Konbini Sports. ‘And I wanted to be just like them’.

From that moment, the then four-year-old Giraud became hooked on skateboarding. Cutting his teeth at the Gerland skate park he began honing his talent, winning his first skateboarding contest just three years later. 

The Frenchman’s breakthrough then came in 2015 when he won Tampa AM – a prestigious contest in Florida that brings together more than 200 amateur skateboarders with the winner often being offered sponsorship deals, contracts and ultimately, to go professional. 

The victory launched his career and has subsequently seen him invited to elite events and even pick up more major wins.

In 2019 he flashed his ability to challenge the establishment when he picked up a first place at Dew Tour. Then in 2021 he returned to the contest to claim third behind Huston and Japanese Olympic champion Horigome Yuto. If that wasn't enough, Giraud is also a two-time French national champion, Tokyo 2020 Olympian and the current FISE Montpellier men’s street skateboard champion.

Though he concedes that competition skateboarding isn’t for everyone in the action sport, Giraud maintains it’s one of the things he loves most: “It gives you an adrenaline rush that makes you feel like you’re growing wings,” he told Riding Zone. “You try things that you would not have tried because you would have been afraid to on a normal day.”

Knowing how Giraud relishes competition, one person he’s not afraid to push is himself – including away from contests.

As well as attempting to set the record for the world’s biggest ollie (the Frenchman soared over two metres), the street skater tried to skate the infamous Lyon 25 - a staircase in his hometown that presents one of the biggest gaps in the world.

To this day, Aaron “Jaws” Homoki is the only skateboarder to have ever successfully cleared the steps and did so after more than one trip to the site. Still, that didn't stop France’s leading skateboarder from having his own go.

Five attempts, a broken board and a small trip to the hospital for a cracked heel later, Giraud didn’t quite succeed in his quest. But in daring to take on one of street skateboarding’s biggest ever challenges the Frenchman had, again, demonstrated the depth of his fearlessness.

And its the kind of which, his rivals best be aware.

With the next Olympics set to take place in Paris expectant French eyes are fixed on their top street skateboarding prospect and Giraud is all too aware:

“[Paris 2024] It’s the ultimate goal. We’ve already started preparing and we’re aiming for the medal,” Giraud continued in his interview with Riding Zone before joking, “it’s not going to leave the country.”

The upcoming street world championships, which will also coincide as another qualification stop for skateboarders hoping to make it to Paris, will provide those tracking Giraud’s progress the chance to see once more how he fares against the best of the rest.

And after a blistering performance in Rome, where he came up just short of the number one prize, there will be lingering hopes that he might just go one step further in Sharjah.

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