American Jagger Eaton takes bronze in his first Olympic skateboarding final

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American Jagger Eaton won the bronze medal in his first Olympic skateboarding final on Sunday at Ariake Urban Sports Park in Tokyo, while world number one Nia Houston missed the podium.

Japanese figure skating star Yuto Horigum claimed the first Olympic gold in the sport’s history, winning the men’s street competition with a score of 37.18 (Round 1: 8.02, Round 2: 6.77, trick 1: 9.03, trick 2: 0.00, trick 3: 9.35, trick 4: 9.50, trick 5: 9.30). Brazilian Kevin Hoefler won the silver with a score of 36.15, while Eaton scored 35.35 points, including 9.40 in his third round.

In each round of Olympic street skateboarding, athletes complete two runs and five “tricks” (performed like a run but involving only one trick rather than a series of tricks). Five judges rate each run and trick on a 0 to 10 point scale. The highest and lowest scores for each run or trick are dropped, and the remaining three scores are averaged to give a score for each run and trick (seven total). The best four points from rounds or tricks are added to give the total score for the round (the best possible score is 40), and the athlete with the highest total score wins.

Huston got off to a strong start in the final, scoring 7.90 and 9.11 in his first two rounds and 9.09 on his first trick, but crashed on his next four attempts. Huston qualified third among the prelims behind Eaton and French star Aurelien Giroud. The Giro finished in sixth place.

Eaton was in the bronze medal position before his last serve with a chance to move up to silver, but he crashed and stayed third.

Houston, 26, won his first major street skating competition when he was 10 in 2005, and was widely expected to at least make it onto the Tokyo podium. In 2012, he became the highest-paid skater in the world, and as of 2013, he has earned more prize money than any other skater in history. He’s already had 18 X Games and six World Figure Skating Championships medals under his belt, but he’ll have to wait for his name to be written in the Olympic history books.

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