STREET LEAGUE SKATEBOARDING TO LAUNCH 2023 SEASON IN CHICAGO WITH REIMAGINED ONE-DAY COMPETITION FORMAT

Skateboarding's Premier Series Returns with Four-Stop Global Calendar

Chicago Tickets on Sale Wednesday, February 8 at StreetLeague.com

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 6, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Following its resurgent 2022 season, Street League Skateboarding has revealed the first details of its 2023 calendar. SLS will open the 2023 SLS Championship Tour in the Windy City at Wintrust Arena on April 29. Fans will now be able to watch the top male and female skaters in the world – including Tokyo Olympians - compete in one action-packed day of elite SLS competition. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, February 8 at StreetLeague.com.

The 2023 SLS season will consist of three SLS tour events, then culminate with the Super Crown World Championship. SLS Chicago will host the first stop, with the remaining three events taking place in marquee international cities on three different continents. More location details will be announced in the coming weeks.

This year's tour will dial up the fan experience with an exciting reimagined one-day format featuring the very best of the best in street skateboarding. The next step in the evolution of SLS, the reimagined format will create a more immediate, immersive and action-packed experience for fans.

In 2023, the SLS competition will be fiercer than ever. A new winner-takes-all format is sure to raise the stakes, since the first-place skater at each event will now not only earn direct qualification to the next SLS Tour stop final, but will also secure their spot in the 2023 SLS Super Crown as well.

Following his 2022 SLS Super Crown win, Gustavo Ribeiro (Lisbon, Portugal) will be directly qualified into the SLS Chicago final. Skaters for Chicago and the grouping for the event will be announced in the coming weeks.

Although Ribeiro carries the momentum from his Las Vegas and Super Crown 2022 wins, Olympic champion Yuto Horigome (Tokyo, Japan) looks to return to his early 2022 dominance where he took trophies home from Jacksonville and Seattle. Veteran SLS pro Dashawn Jordan (Phoenix, USA) is another top contender. Jordan is eager to repeat his victory from 2017, the last time Chicago hosted SLS.

However, Nyjah Huston (Huntington Beach, USA), the winningest skater in SLS history, is poised to return from injury and aims to reclaim the Super Crown. "I'm always excited for another year of SLS, and this year will feel extra special after coming back from a serious injury like this," Huston says. "The new format sounds sick, too. It's always fun to mix it up!"

On the female side, Olympic silver medalist Rayssa Leal (Imperatriz, Brazil) skated a perfect 2022 – winning every SLS tour stop capped off by her Super Crown victory. In Chicago, Leal will be competing against the rest of the podium from both the 2022 SLS Super Crown and the Tokyo Olympics: Momiji Nishiya (Osaka, Japan) and Funa Nakayama (Toyama, Japan) .

When: April 29, 2023
Where: Wintrust Arena; Chicago, Illinois
How: Tickets will be available for purchase February 8 at StreetLeague.com

In addition, SLS will create multiple opportunities throughout the year for skaters to join the SLS Tour with a lineup of new SLS Select events. With a chance to earn a coveted spot in the SLS Tour Knockout Round for the upcoming event up for grabs, skaters will be invited to compete at several events throughout the year. This expanded qualification pathway creates even more opportunity for aspiring skaters to step up to the next level. Additional info on SLS Select events will be forthcoming.

In 2022, Street League returned to indoor arenas for the first time in two years, which brought back the enhanced excitement and stature SLS introduced to the sport over a decade ago. After stops in Jacksonville, Seattle and Las Vegas, the competition built to the 2022 SLS Super Crown World Championship in Rio de Janeiro, which drew over 11,000 fans across two sold-out days. In addition, more than 14 million viewers worldwide tuned in live for the 2022 Super Crown, and the Men's Final aired live on ESPN in the U.S. All in all, last year's Super Crown was the most-watched street skateboarding event in history outside of the Tokyo Olympics.

For more Street League Skateboarding news, including the Championship Tour updates, broadcast information, and more, go to www.streetleague.com and follow Street League Skateboarding on Instagram and Facebook.

ABOUT STREET LEAGUE SKATEBOARDING

Since its inception in 2010, Street League Skateboarding (SLS) has propelled street skateboarding from a collection of independent standalone events to a renowned global series. As pioneers of street skateboarding's premium qualification system and competition format, SLS offers an amateur-to-professional pathway and creates thrilling live events across the globe. The SLS Championship Tour is recognized as the world's premier professional street skateboarding competition. Events take place on custom-built, one-of-a-kind, SLS-certified plazas in major cities around the world, with the best in the sport competing for the highest stakes. For more information, visit StreetLeague.com.

Street League Skateboarding is part of Thrill One Sports & Entertainment. Thrill One is a next-generation content company that lives at the nexus of sports, entertainment and lifestyle, combining the resources of Nitro Circus, SLS, Nitro Rallycross and Thrill One Media. A multi-media platform founded in 2020, Thrill One is dedicated to creating mind-blowing action sports events and original content, fueled by the most daring athletes, talent and brands in thrill-based entertainment. It also boasts one of the largest aggregate social audience in action sports, with over 40 million followers across its multiple brand pages and channels. Go to thrillone.com for additional information.

SOURCE Street League Skateboarding