Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 Shanghai preview: Full schedule and how to watch live

The inaugural Olympic Qualifier Series event takes place in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, from 16-19 May. Find out what you need to know.

7 minBy ZK Goh

The festival-style series will see athletes from all four sports compete to obtain quotas for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 in Shanghai and Budapest with 464 athletes vying for qualification spots.

(IOC)

From 16-19 May, many of the world's top freestyle BMX riders, b-boys and b-girls, skateboarders, and sport climbers will gather for a first-of-its-kind multi-sport event: the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS).

You can stream all the action live globally on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices.

For the first time, athletes in these four sports will compete together at the same event in a single urban park. Shanghai, People's Republic of China, will host the first of two stops on the OQS in which athletes will attempt to earn ranking points.

The OQS serves as the ultimate qualification stage on the road to Paris 2024 for BMX freestyle, breaking, skateboarding and sport climbing. In total, over 150 quota places for Paris 2024 will be secured by athletes following the Series in accordance with the relevant qualification systems.

A total of 464 athletes are competing at OQS Shanghai across all four sports, with a 50-50 split between men and women.

But who are the big names who will be in action, and when and where can you watch them at OQS Shanghai?

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. Click here to view the qualification system for each sport.

Stars taking part at OQS Shanghai 2024

Many top athletes have yet to obtain a Paris 2024 quota spot and will be in action at OQS Shanghai. Of the over 450 athletes in action in the OQS, 81 are prior Olympians and 18 of them won Olympic medals at Tokyo 2020.

In BMX Freestyle, they include the defending Olympic champions, Logan Martin of Australia and Charlotte Worthington of Great Britain, as well as Tokyo 2020 medallists Daniel Dhers, Hannah Roberts, and Nikita Ducarroz.

Here are the athletes that will compete in BMX freestyle at the Olympic Qualifier Series

Conversely, in breaking, which will make its full Olympic Games debut at Paris 2024, a number of the world's best B-Boys and B-Girls have already secured a qualifying quota at previous events. However, there are still some popular stars who have yet to do so, including B-Boy Jeffro of the USA and Japan's B-Girl Ami, the 2019 world champion.

Here are the B-Boys and B-Girls who will compete in breaking at the Olympic Qualifier Series

All the stars will be in action in skateboarding, from the likes of Jagger Eaton and Danny León to Sky Brown and Arisa Trew in park events, and stars such as Nyjah Huston, Aurélien Giraud, reigning Olympic champions Horigome Yuto and Nishiya Momiji, Rayssa Leal, Chloe Covell, and Pamela Rosa in street. Eaton will also compete in the street event in addition to park.

Here are the athletes that will compete in skateboarding at the Olympic Qualifier Series

Sport climbing has also seen some athletes, such as competition climbing's GOAT Janja Garnbret, already obtain Olympic quota spots, and therefore they will not be in Shanghai or Budapest. But others are still looking for their own qualification quotas, including former men's speed world record holder Leonardo Veddriq of Indonesia, Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Nonaka Miho of Japan in women's boulder & lead, and Spanish reigning Olympic champion Alberto Ginés López in men's boulder & lead.