Australia secure 10 Paris 2024 quotas from Olympic Qualifier Series

Keegan Palmer and Arisa Trew won the men’s and women’s park skateboarding events, respectively, in Budapest to make the cut. Logan Martin missed out.

4 minBy Ali Asgar Nalwala

Keegan Palmer of Australia competes during the men's skateboarding park final at the Olympic Qualifier Series on June 23, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.

(Getty Images)

Australian athletes secured 10 Paris 2024 Olympic quotas from the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS), which concluded with the second stop in Budapest, Hungary on Sunday.

The first leg was held in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China, last month and the combined results from the two legs helped decide close to 150 quotas across four sports - BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing.

Australia’s haul of quotas from the inaugural OQS includes nine in skateboarding and one in BMX freestyle.

The men’s park skateboarding event saw Tokyo 2020 champion Keegan Palmer, Kieran Woolley and Keefer Wilson secure three Olympic quotas for Australia.

Keegan Palmer, who finished second in Shanghai, produced a best of 94.94 in his second run to pip USA’s Tom Schaar (94.46) and Tate Carew (92.65) in the men's park skateboarding event in Budapest.

Kieran Woolley (89.16) finished sixth in the Budapest final and Keefer Wilson, whose run ended in the semi-finals, also secured quotas for Australia riding on their performances over the two legs.

Palmer finished second in the overall global standings behind Carew while Woolley and Wilson were seventh and 12th, respectively.

A total of 21 quotas were decided in the men’s park skateboarding event following the QQS Budapest meet. The standings were based on the Olympic World Skateboarding ranking and performances at the Shanghai and Budapest legs of the OQS 2024.

Each NOC could only obtain three quota places per gender per event in skateboarding.

As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at Paris 2024 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation.

The women’s park skateboarding event, which had a similar qualifying process for the Paris Olympics, saw Australia’s 14-year-old Arisa Trew and Ruby Trew obtain quotas.

Arisa topped the Budapest leg with a best run of 93.38 in the final to add to her Shanghai win. Great Britain’s Sky Brown (91.93), a Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist, and Japan’s Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Hiraki Kokona (91.83) came second and third, respectively.

Ruby Trew was ousted in the semi-finals but obtained a second quota for Australia in the event as the ninth-place athlete in the final standings.

In street skateboarding, X Games 2023 gold medallist Chloe Covell, Liv Lovelace and Haylie Powell secured the quotas in the women’s event while Shane O'Neill secured Australia’s only quota in the men’s street skateboarding.

Chloe Covell, with a score of 261.47, finished fifth in the Budapest final while Liv Lovelace and Haylie Powell could not make it to the semi-finals.

Olympian Shane O'Neill could not make it to the semi-finals in Budapest. However, he was ranked 21st among athletes eligible for quota and secured one for Australia.

In the men’s park BMX freestyle, Australia’s Olympic champion Logan Martin, who came second in Shanghai, finished 17th in the qualification in Budapest and failed to obtain a quota for Australia. Martin scored 69.92 in his first run after a fall in the final seconds.

He was eighth in the final standings with the top six making the cut from the OQS.

Tokyo Olympian Natalya Diehm, who was ninth in Shanghai, came fifth in the women’s park BMX freestyle final in Budapest with a score of 90.86 and managed to secure a quota for Australia.

She was seventh in the standings but squeezed in as there were three Chinese athletes in the top six and each NOC allowed a maximum of two quotas per gender.

Australian athletes also featured in the sports climbing and breaking competitions but could not obtain quotas in these events.