The Skateboarding World Championships São Paulo 2025, featuring both park and street disciplines, will open the international calendar of the World Skateboarding Tour 2026 from March 4–8 in Brazil. Originally scheduled for September 2025 in Washington D.C., the championships have been relocated to São Paulo, becoming the first stop of the 2026 circuit and the first major event since the World Cup Kitakyushu Street 2025 held in November in Japan.

The competition will bring together 32 qualified athletes plus eight pre-seeded skaters in each discipline, with four world titles at stake. Among the early confirmed entries are the Olympic champions from Paris 2024: Arisa Trew (women’s park), Yoshizawa Coco (women’s street), Keegan Palmer (men’s park) and Yuto Horigome (men’s street). The programme will also include dedicated paraskate competitions in park and street across the weekend, reinforcing the inclusive model that World Skate has embedded within its competitive structure.

São Paulo opens the World Skateboarding Tour year

The choice of São Paulo as the opening venue of the calendar is far from incidental. During the official presentation, Mayor Ricardo Nunes highlighted that the city counts 170 municipal skate spaces and stated that “São Paulo is the largest city in Latin America, with a strong history in skateboarding, and hosting this Championship is a bold initiative that shows the positive visibility of our city.” The urban and demographic scale of the metropolis thus becomes part of the sporting narrative.

The President of World Skate, Sabatino Aracu, reinforced that view by noting that “we believe São Paulo is the best place to hold a World Championship” because it is “the most cosmopolitan city in the world and a skateboarding capital.” In the same vein, Diogo Castelão, representing local partners STU, said that “we believe in the power of skateboarding — today, tomorrow and the day after,” expressing the hope that this edition will be “the first of many.” The press conference also featured Vinicios Sardi, President of the Brazilian Paraskate Association, who underlined that “paraskate shows people with disabilities in a different light,” referring to the discipline’s inclusion in the event schedule.

35 years of Brazilian growth in skateboarding

Brazil’s relationship with competitive skateboarding did not begin in 2026. It dates back to the late 1980s, when figures such as Lincoln Ueda began leaving their mark on international vert competitions. Throughout the 1990s, while the European summer circuit structured the seasonal calendar and United States dominance appeared firmly established, Brazilian skaters entered contests without traditional industry backing, building their own caravan and financing their presence across Europe.

The turning point came in 1996, when Carlos de Andrade won the Slam City Jam, symbolising a shift in competitive balance. From that moment, Brazil did not simply win contests — it began training specifically to win them. In the early 2000s, the country became a consistent producer of competitive talent, altering the traditional structure of professional skateboarding. Three and a half decades later, that momentum remains visible in athletes such as Rayssa Leal, Pamela Rosa and Gui Khury, and in a framework that has contributed to the sustained growth of skateboarding across Latin America.

From disruption to the Olympic era

Today, with skateboarding fully integrated into the Olympic programme and with a more plural global landscape, Brazil continues to play a structural role within the international competitive ecosystem. The consolidation of the World Skateboarding Ranking, the professionalisation of the circuit and expansion into new markets have created an environment in which talent is distributed across continents, with Japan emerging as a leading force in Asia and Latin America firmly established as a major hub.

The launch of the World Skateboarding Tour 2026 in São Paulo therefore connects history with the present. After 35 years of continuous influence, Brazil is not only hosting a World Championship, but opening a season that once again positions the city as a reference point in global skateboarding. From the European circuits of the 1990s to the Olympic era, Brazil’s trajectory forms part of the structure on which modern competitive skateboarding is built.