23-year-old Mesa Olympian Jagger Eaton won the silver medal in the men’s street skateboarding event, just missing out on gold.

Yuto Horigome wasn’t even thinking about the podium this time around. The first men’s street skateboarding champion when the sport debuted at the 2021 Olympics, was so far behind on his last attempt that it looked like he would fall short.

Instead, the 25-year-old Japanese produced the best trick of the competition to overtake Americans Jagger Eaton and Nyjah Huston in the race for a repeat of the title.

Horigome scored a 97.08 on Monday to vault into first place and secure two straight gold medals, beating Eaton by just 0.1 points in a thrilling finish before an excited crowd that was a far cry from the empty stands in Tokyo three years ago.

“It means everything,” Horigome said. “It feels like a dream, a living dream. It’s crazy. Tokyo, there was no one, no audience, so I’m very happy this time (with) all the fans here. It’s a special moment.”

Eaton and Huston were both in first place going into the finals. Eaton was in the gold medal position until Horigome completed a trick known as a nollie 270 to nosebluntside — similar to the trick the Arizona native had done a few minutes earlier to get to that spot.

“The roller coaster I was on, I thought I won, and then I got off the ride,” Eaton said. “Yuto, it’s all respect. I think at that level, between first, second and third place, you could have picked anyone to win.”

Huston said of Horigome: “I don’t think Yuto feels any fear or pressure. He feels absolutely no pressure.”

As for how the 29-year-old X Games star was feeling, it was mixed after a disappointing seventh-place finish in Tokyo. With Snoop Dogg — who has quickly become one of the stars of these Games — in attendance, Huston nailed his second run with Snoop and Dr. Dre’s “Still DRE” blasting over speakers around La Concorde Urban Park.

But then came the end, when he and Eaton had one last chance to jump Horigome and claim gold. Both were eliminated in the last two jumps of the day.

“I was close to getting that gold, and I’m really mad at myself for not pulling off that last trick, because I know I can do it,” Huston said, acknowledging a bit of redemption. “But it’s hard to pull off those tricks at times like this.”

It was made all the more difficult by the elite level of skateboarding, even among those who finished lower in the finals. Canadian Cornado Russell, who had three tricks above 92 but was not in medal condition due to two failed runs, had some praise for what this street event meant to the sport.

“It’s the future,” Russell said. “It’s the future of skateboarding. This is one of the best. There’s a lot more to come.”

The competition was scheduled for Saturday, but the same rain that drenched the opening ceremony across the Seine — and then more through the night and morning — forced it to be postponed. World Skate cited adverse weather conditions as the reason for the rescheduling, and it was one of the few outdoor events hit over the weekend before the skies cleared.

Sunny, warm weather greeted the skateboarders on Monday, with temperatures hovering around 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) late in the preliminary round and throughout the final. The stands remained full despite the heat and France’s Vincent Milou and Aurélien Giraud failing to make it out of the preliminary rounds.

“I was really disappointed not to see any Frenchmen in the final, that’s a bit of a shame,” said Eaton.

Also failing to reach the final were 14-year-old Japanese skateboarder Ginwoo Onodera, making his Olympic debut, and Chris Joslin from the US, who had an off day.