Photography: Odd Anderson

EARLIER THIS WEEK, I was at the 2024 Olympic Games. In between ooh-ing at the synchronised diving and aah-ing at the Judo, I decided to take out my scoring board for the Men’s Skateboarding Prelims (alas, on a screen – even Esquire can’t secure tickets to everything). It turns out that a childhood spent playing Tony Hawk games on the PlayStation would eventually come in handy.

Since the leaderboard was bereft of a Union Jack, I had to decide who to root for. Yuto Horigome of Team Japan stood out. Not because he was the gold medalist of the very first Olympic skateboarding event at the 2021 2020 Tokyo Games (I actually had no idea about that) but because I took to his calm disposition, his flaming locks of auburn hair and his even hotter ‘fit.

Who knew Olympic wear was allowed to be so – to borrow from skate bowl lingo – steezy? Not me!

Read more of Esquire’s coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics:

All the Australian Olympic medals won at Paris 2024, so far

The countries that pay their athletes for winning Olympic medals

Underrated and underappreciated: 10 niche Olympic sports to watch at Paris 2024

Which nation has the most stylish Olympic uniform?

The outfit in question: a black Nike SB jersey that’s new for 2024 but impossible to find on the world wide web (hero detail: the white-to-pink gradient strip that runs down both sides) paired with some loose but not baggy (let’s call them ‘skater fit’) trousers and some Nike SB Dunk Lows from his very own collaboration with the Swoosh (sneaks owned or coveted by his 1.6 million Instagram followers).

And, what’s that? AirPods?! How cooly unconcerned, how very like the stars of the nineties/noughties skateboarding scene. I wondered what he was listening to? In an interview with GOAT, the 26-year-old revealed he was a fan of Future. I Won would be a great shout, tbf.

Then I began to wonder what I’d listen to if that was me. Some upbeat bops? A self-recorded voice note? (“Joseph, don’t make a fool of us”). Perhaps I’d call my dad? (“Joseph, don’t make a fool of us”).

Photography: Stefan Matzke

Anyway . . . Horigome went on to win gold in the Men’s Skateboarding Finals later that day. He wore AirPods throughout the competition. Runner-up Jagger Eaton also sported buds whilst cruising the course in Place de la Concorde.

That’s two Gen-Zs going against the grain by opting for discreet earbuds over conspicuous over-ear headphones like the rest of their generation who are (still) pining for the Y2K era.

Come to think of it, there wasn’t a pair of over-ears headphones in sight. At least, not at the Men’s tournament. Maybe it comes down to aerodynamics? But then again, we saw guys like Columbia’s Jhancarlos González wearing flat caps and sunglasses. In the women’s, American skateboarder Poe Pinson rocked some retro-look headphones reminiscent of those worn by Scarlett Johansson in Lost in Translation (2003) in the Women’s Skateboarding final. In contrast, she came fifth . . .

I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time that skateboarders were ahead of the curve.

This story originally appeared on Esquire UK