TOKYO: American superstar Nyjah Huston bemoaned soaring temperatures and the lack of fans as he endured a day to forget in skateboarding's grand Olympic debut on Sunday.
The multiple world champion and world number one has dominated street skating but four straight falls in the tricks section left him seventh out of eight finalists.
Japan's Yuto Horigome took the inaugural gold with Huston, skating's high-profile, multi-millionaire answer to Tiger Woods or LeBron James, left searching for answers.
He said it was difficult competing in a sun-baked, empty venue -- after fans were barred from most of the Games over the coronavirus -- with an Olympic title on the line.
Many of his victories have come in front of noisy crowds and while hip hop still thumped from the speakers, the lack of an audience was keenly felt at Ariake Urban Sports Centre.
"The atmosphere has been hard definitely," Huston said.
"Even though I skate with headphones on out there, I normally feed off the energy of the crowd. It's really unfortunate that there's no fans here."
He added that the hot weather, with temperatures hitting 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) "really makes a difference".
"Your feet start burning out, it feels kinda crazy. It gets so hot that your board kinda flexes. It's not easy," Huston said, admitting that he felt more pressure than normal.
"There's an extra pressure here. I've been skating pro-contests for 15 years now but there's Street League, X Games, but if you compare that to the Olympics there's no comparison," he said.
Despite his disappointment, Huston said it was a dream come true to compete at the Olympics -- and hoped skateboarding could bring a "new vibe" to the highly traditional Games.
"Skateboarding can give to the Olympics a great competition, some new vibes that I feel it'd kinda need," he said.
"After this, hopefully people will be more accepting to skateboarding in cities like Tokyo. There's a lot of good spots here and amazing skaters that come from here," Huston added.
"We're not out there trying to vandalise or trespass -- that is the way a lot of people see it (skateboarding) -- we're just out there doing our job and having a good time."
