Yuto, as a two-time gold medal winning Olympic champion, do you think skateboarding is in your DNA?
Maybe, yes! My dad was also a skateboarder, and so when he was growing up, he would go skating just at the local park. Not a skate park, but a regular park. All the skaters were there, and I was there too, following my dad, watching at first, but then sometimes when my dad was finished skating, he would put me on the board. That was my first memory of skateboarding, my dad holding me up on the board when I was just a baby.
Is there a big skateboarding culture in your native Japan?
I feel like Japan has a pretty good community for skateboarding, but it’s not like America. There’s still a cool culture but it’s not as big. The generation before me is really the one that really started the street culture and the skating community. I learned a lot from them over the past few years. It's definitely up there, and it’s continuing to grow and expand really quickly.
“I realized pretty quickly that I needed to come up with new ideas, new tricks, because if you don’t, you won’t win contests. That's where it all started.”
Eventually you moved to the US yourself, and you’ve been living in LA ever since. How does it compare?
In the US, there’s a lot more chances, a lot more opportunity to skate, there are skate parks everywhere, so it’s really easy to dream about being a pro skater. The street and skate culture is very open. Even when I first moved here and started doing crazy tricks at skate parks, they would get really hyped for me, they would get really riled up. They were so friendly and open with me, so it was a really easy transition. Here it’s like, if you continue to work at your goal, then people start to recognize you and recognize the values that you have, how hard you've been working.
Is that when you realized you had a talent for the sport yourself?
It was before that. I started skating on my own for many years in Japan and then in high school, I would go to the US with my mom for competitions. And one of the first contests that I participated in in the US was an amateur contest, but I ended up finishing on the podium! That’s when I knew, and from then on, I would start to enter a few of those contests a year and each time, I would continue to podium. That’s when I realized this is something that can probably do as a profession.
Apparently the line between hobbyist and professional in skateboarding has to do with inventing new tricks.
I think so! When I started going into more and more contests, I would first mimic pro skaters, doing the same tricks as them. But then once the amateur contests got tougher, I reached a point where I wouldn't make the qualifiers. I realized pretty quickly that I needed to come up with new ideas, new tricks, because if you don’t, you won't win contests. That's where it all started, and that's why I continue to think about new tricks, even today.
Is it scary, to push your own limits in that way?
Oh, of course! It’s always scary to try new tricks. Especially if I’m skating by myself, sometimes it’s really hard to push myself. Then If I fall or get injured, it gets scarier to keep trying. It’s hard to get over the fear and keep trying, keep pushing. If I’m skating with friends, it helps because maybe they’re working on something new too and we can hype each other up. That’s probably the best situation for me, when my friends are there, it makes me more confident. As a skater, I think there’s a constant fear with whatever you’re trying to do… For all pro skaters, that’s something we think about: what if I fall? What if I get hurt or something bad happens? But if you don’t face that fear, if you don’t put it aside, then it’s really hard for you to get to the next level.
It sounds like it’s a battle with yourself and your own nerves, maybe more than being in competition with other skaters?
Definitely, it’s firstly a battle with yourself. But that's also a really fun part about this sport. I love to challenge myself. I remember when I was skating in the Olympic qualifier in Budapest in 2024, the last trick was a really important one. A lot was riding on it, and I was very physically and mentally drained. But I was able to keep pushing myself, pushing past all the negative stuff, everything that had happened over the last three years trying to get to this moment… And I made it happen. I won that contest and went to the Olympics.
You went on to win your second gold medal, after already earning the first gold in Olympic skateboarding in your native Tokyo in 2021.
Yes! That was one of the most exciting times of my life, especially being on my home soil and representing my home country. It was the most joyful moment ever for me, winning that contest. But then obviously afterwards, there was a lot of pressure to get through, and to compete again in Paris in 2024. It was a really long road, but that first gold in Tokyo was something that really changed my career. I understood for the first time the magnitude of the Olympics because it really did change my life.
“I have to have the contest mentality. I have to push myself to try to get first place.”
How do you typically approach those competition days? Do you try to think about it like a normal day, or do you have a mentality where you want to win?
Honestly, I have to have the contest mentality. I have to push myself to try to get first place. I need that perfect mindset because if I'm not ready, I'm not going to skate the contest like a contest. I always have to work to get my mindset right, and I have a few little rituals that I go through to get myself ready to skate.
What kind of rituals?
Well, I should say, it’s more like a routine than a ritual. It’s just a certain training regime, stretching, preparing my mind… I go through the basics, the elementary stuff, the kind of constants like I always do. And then for me, it’s also listening to music. That’s really important for me on a competition day.
Does skating bring you a kind of meditativeness in that moment?
I don’t know… I guess during competitions and maybe stressful times, you know, skating kind of will stress me out. But the best for me is a regular day at the skate park in LA or at home in Tokyo, when I’m hanging out with my friends, just skating for fun. That’s when I feel the most relaxed and at peace on a skateboard.