More athletes to watch

Yuto Horigome

SKATEBOARDING, JAPAN

Yuto Horigome wrote in his elementary-school yearbook that his dream was “to become the best skateboarder in the world.” The Tokyo native picked up skateboarding at the age of 6 by accompanying his father to skate parks. Now 22 and ranked second in the world for men’s street skating, he could achieve that goal in spectacular fashion when the sport makes its Olympic debut in his home country.

To get to this point, Horigome had to leave home. He began traveling to the U.S., the hub of competitive skating, for competitions as a teenager in 2014. Just four years later, Horigome became the first Japanese skater to claim a world title, at the Street League Skateboarding tour in London. After graduating high school, Horigome moved to the U.S. and is now based in Los Angeles, where he bought a home with its own skate park.

Horigome’s move across the ocean was driven by both ambition and necessity. Skaters in Japan have long been considered troublemakers. NO SKATEBOARDING signs are common across city streets, and skaters say they get hassled by security guards or the police for even carrying skateboards around. But the growing popularity of the sport has helped ease the stigma, paving the way for more skate parks and spaces that help nurture the nation’s skating culture. And with the sport on the cusp of Olympic validation, Japanese media has ramped up coverage of competitions, and top skaters now appear on magazine covers and on TV interviews.

Horigome—an innovative skater known for coming up with tricks that no one else has done (a switch backside 180 nosegrind fakie, for instance) and landing difficult spins and slides in competitions—is Japan’s best hope for men’s skating gold. To do it, he’ll have to get by Nyjah Huston, the world’s top-ranked street skater. But Horigome has done it before; in June, he beat Huston for the world championship, denying the American a fourth consecutive title.

Horigome told reporters that the win gave him the confidence to believe he can take skating’s first gold in Tokyo: “I want to achieve something that no one has ever done before.” —Aria Chen

Wilfredo León

VOLLEYBALL, POLAND

Poland was never a volleyball hotbed. But that was before Wilfredo León, the man known as the Cristiano Ronaldo of the sport, arrived in the country and single-handedly turned it into a contender. The 6-ft. 8-in. outside hitter made his debut for the national team of his native Cuba at just 14, and by 17 was its captain—the youngest ever. After fleeing Cuba, León gained Polish citizenship in 2015. He played for Russian and Italian pro teams, becoming one of the world’s highest-paid volleyball players, but he didn’t become eligible to compete for Poland’s national team until 2019. Cuba “will always have a place in my heart,” León said, but “everything I do in this moment” is for Poland. With León on the roster, Poland has been transformed into a medal contender with a shot to win its first Olympic gold in the sport since 1976.—Madeline Roache

Ariarne Titmus

SWIMMING, AUSTRALIA

When Ariarne Titmus swam the second fastest women’s 400-m freestyle in history at the Australian swimming trials in June, observers called it a “warning shot” to U.S. powerhouse Katie Ledecky, who set the world record at the Rio Olympics. Titmus has already shown that she’s capable of beating Ledecky; she won in a stunning upset against the U.S. swimmer in the 400-m freestyle at the 2019 world championships, though Ledecky dropped out of two races at that event because of illness. The rivalry between the Australian and U.S. swim teams, a highlight of the Summer Olympics for decades, will be showcased once again in Tokyo. At the trials, 20-year-old Titmus, nicknamed the Terminator, predicted, “I think the Olympics are not going to be all America’s way.” —Amy Gunia

Alex Morgan

SOCCER, U.S.

If the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team has one last goal to accomplish, it’s this: becoming the first women’s team to ever win a World Cup and an Olympics, back to back. Alex Morgan, the fifth leading goal scorer in