Aori
Nishimura

Three-time Women’s SKB Street gold medalist Aori Nishimura has helped pave the way for a new generation of Japanese women in the discipline: since her rise, younger Japanese skaters have become podium regulars, at X Games and otherwise. She’s been beset by knee injuries, with a torn left ACL in 2017 and a torn right ACL in 2021, but when she’s at full strength she can still be a podium challenger: she took back-to-back X Games gold in Minneapolis and Norway and won the 2021 World Skate Street Championships in Rome, her best recent result outside of X Games.