Gavin Bottger Captures World Title, Minna Stess makes history

ROME, ITALY – In a dominant performance at the WST: Rome Park 2023 World Championships, skateboarders from Team USA secured half of the medals between the men’s and women’s competitions. Led by 16-year-old Gavin Bottger (Oceanside, California), who earned the first world title of his career, Americans Tate Carew (San Diego, California) and Minna Stess (Petaluma, California) also put together podium performances. 

While Bottger is the third consecutive American to win the men’s title, Stess becomes the first American to medal in the women’s event since it became the World Skate World Championships in 2018. 

Competing for his first career world title, Bottger saved his best run for last, stringing together a 94.03-point third run and topping the men’s field by more than two full points. Bottger is seeking his first career Olympic berth next summer, and was ranked 11th by the Olympic World Skateboarding Rankings (OWSR) prior to the competition in Rome.  

Luigi Cini of Brazil ranked second in the men’s competition with a best score of 91.90, while the 18-year-old American Carew snagged bronze with a score of 91.34.  

American and 2022 world champion Jagger Eaton (Mesa, Arizona) rounded out an impressive showing from the men’s team with a fourth-place result and a best score of 88.33.  

Previously ranked 10th in the world, Stess threw down an unprecedented score of 90.80 in her second run en route to her first world championships medal. An alternate for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 team, Stess burst onto the scene with a strong seventh-place result at the 2022 World Skate Park Skateboarding Championships in Sharjah and has continued to rise in the rankings since. She took home the bronze medal behind a 1-2 result from Japanese skateboarders Kokana Hiraki and Hinano Kusaki. 

Sixteen-year-old Ruby Lilley (Oceanside, California) improved on a 17th-place performance at the 2022 world championships, taking seventh in the women’s final for her best career finish at a world championships to date.  

Points accumulated at the world championships in Rome are nearly double that of the remaining tour stops. The OWSR will release updated rankings prior to the end of the first phase of qualifying in January 2024. 

Park skateboarders from Team USA will next head to the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. Competition in Santiago runs from Oct. 20-Nov. 5, with both park and street skateboarding featuring from Oct. 21-22. The Pan American Games do not count toward Olympic qualifying, and four U.S. skateboarders will represent their country in Chile: Bryce Wettstein and Taylor Nye in park and Dashawn Jordan and Paige Heyn in street. 

For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org. 

Full U.S. Results – WST: Rome Park 2023 World Championships 

GOLD 

Gavin Bottger (men’s) 

BRONZE 

Tate Carew (men’s) 

Minna Stess (women’s) 

Other results: 

Jagger Eaton – 4th (men’s) 

Bryce Wettstein – 9th (women’s) 

Lillian Erickson – 11th (women’s) 

JD Sanchez – 11th (men’s) 

Tom Schaar – 14th (men’s) 

Liam Pace –17th (men’s) 

Jordyn Barratt – 18th (women’s) 

Jordan Santana – 21st (women’s) 

Raphael Ueda – 29th (men’s) 

Katelyn West – 30th (women’s) 

Cona Suganami – 36th (women’s) 

Taylor Nye – 37th (men’s) 

Jake Familton – 38th (men’s) 
Luke Kahler – 39th (men’s) 

Carlin Makibbin – 42nd (women’s) 

Cory Juneau – 54th (men’s) 

Zion Wright – 75th (men’s)