Rayssa Leal Wins STU Open in Rio

The Women’s Street Skateboarding contest at Duó Square skatepark featured riders from across the world, including Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, France, Spain, South Africa, and Venezuela. Monster Energy’s Rayssa Leal came to Rio de Janeiro as the rider to beat, fresh off a recent victory at SLS Las Vegas in the United States.

In her runs during Sunday’s final, Leal covered the entire concrete street course with high-tech tricks. The Olympic silver medalist also put down best tricks such as kickflip frontside boardslide, kickflip backside lipslide, and technical sugarcane grind down the nine-stair rail. Awarded a score of 20.54 points, Leal took first place and the $50,000 cash prize ahead of fellow Brazilian Pamela Rosa in second place.

The Men’s Skateboard Street line-up was stacked with riders hailing from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Germany, Israel, New Zealand, and the United States, among others. Monster Energy hit the contest with a heavy squad including Kelvin Hoefler, Giovanni Vianna, Matt Berger, Filipe Mota, Justin Sommer, Jhancarlos Gonzalez, and Riso Tury.

In Sunday’s high-energy finals, 29-year-old Kelvin Hoefler from São Paulo, Brazil, put his creative trick selection and consistency on full display. Hoefler’s trick highlights included Half Cab overcrook revert, as well as an ultra-technical kickflip backside tailslide bigspin out down the big rail for a total score of 26.16 points and third place.

Finishing closely off the podium, Monster Energy's Giovanni Vianna took fourth place by finessing tricks such as Caballerial frontside noseslide fakie and frontside Half Cab backside Smith grind down the big rail. Also making a strong impression this weekend, Filipe Mota emerged from the grueling semifinal as the top qualifier. The Brazilian upstart ended up in fifth place after landing technical bangers such as kickflip frontside bluntslide and backside bigspin hurricane grind down the big handrail.

During the previous weekend, the Men’s Skateboard Park Event featured elite riders, including Monster Energy’s Kieran Woolley, Vi Kakinho, Rune Glifberg, Raphae Ueda, Yam Behar, Liam Pace, and newly minted Brazilian team rider Isadora Pacecho.

In the final session featuring eight riders, Monster Energy’s Luiz Francisco used all angles of the massive concrete bowl. The 22-year-old Brazilian landed high-speed frontside feeble grind transfers off the extension, frontside tailslide over the hip, kickflip Indy the deep end, frontside nosegrind tailgrab the vert wall, frontside blunt the extension, frontside lipslide the deep end, and a huge double flip melon grab over the hip for a strong third-place finish with a score of 79.07 points.