X Games' Japan debut: Horigome Yuto, Rayssa Leal, Logan Martin among stars plus schedule, how to watch
Eight months after skateboarding and BMX Freestyle arrived at the Olympic Games with a bang in Tokyo, primetime action sports return to Japan for X Games Chiba - this time in front of a crowd.
It's here.
The X Games will be held on Japanese soil for the first time this weekend with the world's top action-sport athletes gathering in Chiba just outside Tokyo.
Chiba Marine Stadium will host the event from 22-24 April featuring many of the stars who made the Olympic debuts of skateboarding and BMX Freestyle such a success at Tokyo 2020.
While fans had to watch from home last summer due to coronavirus countermeasures, they will be turning out in force at X Games Chiba to finally get a piece of the action live.
Japanese athletes dominate X Games skateboarding lineups
In skateboarding, four of the six women who won medals in Tokyo will appear in Chiba.
Olympic park champion Yosozumi Sakura will take part but street gold medallist Nishiya Momiji pulled out just a couple of days before the start of the event.
Brazil's 14-year-old street sensation Rayssa Leal, who won silver in Tokyo, will renew rivalry with bronze medallist Nakayama Funa
Yosozumi and Tokyo silver medallist Hiraki Kokona head the park field with Japanese-born Briton Sky Brown absent.
In the men's competition, the top three in street from Tokyo will lock horns once again including gold medallist Horigome Yuto who will be angling to add to his triumph three years ago in Minneapolis.
He will not face the X Games' all-time most successful street skateboarder, Nyjah Huston, who pulled out two days before the start of the event.
The American withered in the scorching Tokyo sun at the Olympic Games, finishing seventh out of eight in the final.
As well as the Olympic disciplines of street and park, there is also skateboard vert.
The full list of athletes is here.
Olympic champ Logan Martin heads BMX Park field
In BMX Freestyle's Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, Australian Logan Martin topped the podium, flanked by Venezuelan veteran Daniel Dhers (silver) and Britain's Declan Brooks.
All three have thrown their hat into the ring for the park discipline in Chiba, as has Japan's Nakamura Rim who was tipped for a medal in Tokyo but could only finish fifth. There are no women's BMX events at these X Games.
BMX flatland, a non-Olympic event featuring tricks performed on a flat surface, returns to the X Games after an absence of 19 years while there are also medals to be won in BMX street.
On the final day of X Games Chiba, an exhibition will be held for breaking, which will be added to the Paris 2024 program.
Here is the course layout for X Games Chiba.
X Games Chiba schedule (all times local JST, GMT+9)
Friday 22 April
12:30 Women's Skateboard Street Elimination
14:00 Women's Skateboard Park Elimination
15:30 BMX Park Elimination
17:00 Men's Skateboard Park Elimination
18:15 Skateboard Vert
19:15 BMX Flatland
Saturday 23 April
12:00 Men's Skateboard Street Elimination
13:30 Skateboard Vert Best Trick
14:15 Women's Skateboard Park
15:50 BMX Park
18:00 Moto X Best Whip
19:00 BMX Street
Sunday 24 April
11:00 Men's Skateboard Park
12:30 Women's Skateboard Street
15:30 Men's Skateboard Street
X Games Chiba - How to watch
Action from X Games Chiba, the first X Games to be held in Japan, will be streamed live on X Games YouTube.
