Ao
Nishikawa

Ao Nishikawa made history in January 2026, winning Tony Hawk’s Ollie 7 Challenge to become the first person to land a no-grab Ollie 720 on vert. The young Japanese skater made his X Games debut at X Games Ventura 2024 at age 11, two weeks after qualifying in 7th at Tony Hawk’s Vert Alert Road to X Games event in Salt Lake City. A local at the famed G Skatepark in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, he’s joined by a squadron of (very) young skaters to emerge from the park’s lessons and coaching programs, where they’ve been mentored by X Games gold medalist Moto Shibata: Ao is close friends with Ema Kawakami, also an X Games competitor.