Legends Yuto Horigome and Ayumu Hirano Show Up at a Night Club and Shibuya is in an Uproar!

Around 1 a.m. in mid-June, a crowd of people gathered around a cab parked in front of a club in Dogenzaka, Shibuya. At the center of the crowd was Ayumu Hirano, 23, who won the gold medal in the snowboard halfpipe at the Beijing Olympics this year. Then Yuto Horigome (23), who won the gold medal in the skateboard street at the Tokyo Olympics, also appeared in the street.

Hirano has a godly presence, smiling and signing autographs for his fans who were waiting for him. The two then each got into a cab and left the scene. It seemed that they had gathered with their skateboarding friends since Horime, who is based in the U.S., had returned to Japan.

During the day, Horime was attending a talk show. At the show, he said that he was thinking of competing not only in the ’24 Paris Olympics,’ but also in the next Olympics in Los Angeles in ’28, up to three consecutive championships. Hirano, like Horigome, is already looking forward to the next Olympics.

“He says he will not only aim for back-to-back championships at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, but also challenge himself with new tricks that no one has tried before. Just as he took on skateboarding at the Tokyo Olympics, he is always setting new hurdles for himself. The other day, he went to a concert by Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi, and on the 19th, he watched a match of Tenshin Nasukawa (23), with whom he and Horime have been in contact. They must be urged by people and looking for what they should do next,” says Yumiko Yanai, a sports writer.

Their friendship can also be seen on social media. The secret of their victory must be the presence of rivals who mutually improve each other.

From the July 8, 2022 issue of FRIDAY