“The physical amulets are around my neck. Now, in a week, the necklace will become a medal. The statement of intent made when he left for Paris on July 21 was clear: Gustavo Ribeiro was going to his second Olympic Games with the goal of getting on the podium in the street competition, if possible, the highest place. But the Portuguese skater worsened his 8th place in Tokyo and on Monday he did not advance beyond 17th place in the qualification, missing the final. “Skateboarding is sometimes a little unfair. You can work for years, but wake up on the wrong day, and sometimes things don’t work out. I felt like it was my day, I was quite prepared, but unfortunately I couldn’t skate the way I wanted,” the athlete admitted. In the first race – each skater performs two (only the best one counts) and five tricks (the two with the most points are included in the final score) – Gustavo Ribeiro fell. Competing in the third of four runs and knowing that only the top eight would make it to the final, the skater approached the second race under great pressure. And while performing one of his usual maneuvers, he collided with a TV cameraman. The Portuguese immediately protested, and the organization gave him a choice: repeat the race at that point or return to the track with the rest of the skaters. Gustavo chose the immediate solution. But the race, and then the stunts, did not go well. In the end, the Portuguese played down the fact that this incident, or the postponement of the race on Saturday due to rain, made him even more nervous. “Sometimes I put a little pressure on myself. It’s not over, there’s still a long way to go. I’m still quite young, I still have a lot of opportunities.”