70 TIME July 19/July 26, 2021
TOKYO
OLYMPICS
Wilfredo
LeónVOLLEYBALL, POLAND
Poland was never a volleyball hotbed.
But that was before Wilfredo León, the
man known as the Cristiano Ronaldo
of the sport, arrived in the country
and single- handedly turned it into a
contender. The 6-ft. 8-in. outside hitter
made his debut for the national team
of his native Cuba at just 14, and by 17
was its captain—the youngest ever.
After fl eeing Cuba, León gained Polish
citizenship in 2015. He played for Rus-
sian and Italian pro teams, becoming
one of the world’s highest-paid volley-
ball players, but he didn’t become eli-
gible to compete for Poland’s national
team until 2019. Cuba “will always
have a place in my heart,” León said,
but “everything I do in this moment”
is for Poland. With León on the roster,
Poland has been transformed into a
medal contender with a shot to win its
fi rst Olympic gold in the sport since
1976.ÑMadeline RoacheAriarne
TitmusSWIMMING, AUSTRALIA
When Ariarne Titmus swam the
second fastest women’s 400-m
freestyle in history at the Australian
swimming trials in June, observers
called it a “warning shot” to U.S.
powerhouse Katie Ledecky, who set
the world record at the Rio Olympics.
Titmus has already shown that she’s
capable of beating Ledecky; she won
in a stunning upset against the U.S.
swimmer in the 400-m freestyle at the
2019 world championships, though
Ledecky dropped out of two races
at that event because of illness. The
rivalry between the Australian and
U.S. swim teams, a highlight of the
Summer Olympics for decades, will be
showcased once again in Tokyo. At the
trials, 20-year-old Titmus, nicknamed
the Terminator, predicted, “I think
the Olympics are not going to be all
America’s way.” ÑAmy GuniaYuto Horigome
SKATEBOARDING, JAPAN
Yuto Horigome wrote in his
elementary -school yearbook that
his dream was “to become the best
skateboarder in the world.” The
Tokyo native picked up skateboard-
ing at the age of 6 by accompanying
his father to skate parks. Now 22 and
ranked second in the world for men’s
street skating, he could achieve that
goal in spectacular fashion when the
sport makes its Olympic debut in his
home country.
To get to this point, Horigome
had to leave home. He began
traveling to the U.S., the hub
of competitive skating, for
competitions as a teenager in 2014.
Just four years later, Horigome
became the fi rst Japanese skater
to claim a world title, at the Street
League Skateboarding tour in
London. After graduating high
school, Horigome moved to the U.S.
and is now based in Los Angeles,
where he bought a home with its
own skate park.
Horigome’s move across
the ocean was driven by both
ambition and necessity. Skaters in
Japan have long been considered
troublemakers. NO SKATEBOARDING
signs are common across city streets,
and skaters say they get hassled by
security guards or the police for even
carrying skateboards around. But the
growing popularity of the sport has
helped ease the stigma, paving the
way for more skate parks and spaces
that help nurture the nation’s skating
culture. And with the sport on the
cusp of Olympic validation, Japanese
media has ramped up coverage of
competitions, and top skaters now
appear on magazine covers and on
TV interviews.
Horigome—an innovative skater
known for coming up with tricks
that no one else has done (a switch
backside 180 nosegrind fakie, for
instance) and landing diffi cult
spins and slides in competitions—
is Japan’s best hope for men’s
skating gold. To do it, he’ll have
to get by Nyjah Huston, the
world’s top-ranked street skater.
But Horigome has done it before;
in June, he beat Huston for the
world championship, denying the
American a fourth consecutive title.
Horigome told reporters that the
win gave him the confi dence to be-
lieve he can take skating’s fi rst gold
in Tokyo: “I want to achieve some-
thing that no one has ever done
before.” —Aria Chen