Winberg, the youngest in the entire Swedish Olympic Games team, delivered two fine runs in the qualification (he fell in the third). Already in the first run, he should have been richly rewarded, he thinks.
The audience thought so too. When the score of 82.58 appeared on the scoreboard, the nearly full stands responded by booing the judges.
It was a bit surprising that there was so much booing. But it was sickly cool. It was a bit of a bad score, so it was cool to have the right mindset afterwards and pull off a whole new trick in the next run, and it gave good points, says Winberg.
"Better than ever"
In the final run, he pulled off a trick he had rather saved for a potential final, and was rewarded with the judges' benevolence. 88.29 points gave him a fourth place for the time being, but it wasn't enough. When Australian Keefer Wilson scored 88.60 in the last heat, Winberg was pushed just outside the eight final spots. The Swede finished ninth in the qualification.
It's the highest score I've ever gotten in a competition. I can only be satisfied, I've performed better than ever, says Winberg.
Classic setting
The arenas for the more "youthful" Olympic Games sports – skateboarding, BMX, breaking, 3x3 basketball – have been set up in the middle of Place de la Concorde in central Paris, so Hampus Winberg got to make his Olympic debut in the shadow of classic landmarks like the Luxor Obelisk.
It's a memory he'll carry with him as he now continues towards the Olympic Games in Los Angeles 2028.
I've been waiting for this day for three years. This is where I want to be.
