Olympic champions Mariya Kiselyova and Vic Wild open the first day of the Phygital Games 8 in Skateboarding
On Friday, July 14, the Phygital Games 8 in Skateboarding started in Tatarstan as part of the Fourth All-Russian Urban Games MATCH! On the first day of the Games, three-time Olympic champion in artistic swimming Mariya Kiselyova and two-time Olympic champion in snowboarding Vic Wild visited the venue.
On the first day of the Phygital Games 8, the participants started by showcasing their skills in skateboarding on the sports field, after which they proceeded to demonstrate their tricks in a skateboarding simulator. On Friday, July 14, participants from Argentina, Colombia, Spain, Bulgaria, as well as from Russia and Belarus performed. There are a total of eight teams, each with two skateboarders in the main squad and one in reserve.
In the outcome of the intense battles at the Uram Park, New Kids Turbo (Russia), Latino Gang (Argentina), Slugs (Russia), "Troe iz lartsa" (Russia) managed to proceed to the finals.
In the finals, the riders will face a new challenge: one team member will perform tricks in a real park, while the other will try to repeat them in a digital one.
"Artistic swimming should be added to the Phygital Games – we have changed the rules, and each element now corresponds to a specific number of points. You can create a program with a set of real elements and then show it already in the pool. Artistic swimmers will benefit because they will get to know the rules better, understand the elements, plus it will attract fans to our sport," Mariya Kiselyova commented after watching the Phygital skateboarding competitions.
"Phygital sports are quite fascinating. Video games are fun and interesting. I played them myself when I was young but later on leaned more towards skating. I quite like the phygital format, but also the real, physical sport," Vic Wild shared his impression of what he saw.
Fourth All-Russian Urban Games MATCH! are taking place at Europe's biggest extreme park, The Uram, which is located right in the center of Kazan. The competition had a prize pool of 2 million rubles.
Broadcasting is available on streaming platforms in LIVE mode: