The qualification process for skateboarding's second appearance at the Olympic Games has been disrupted by a lack of competition on World Skate's calendar, with the Street Skateboarding Pro Tour stop in Rome last year the only event since Tokyo 2020.

No qualifier in the park discipline has yet been held.

Last year's Street and Park World Championships in Rio de Janeiro were cancelled, with World Skate blaming the Organising Committee for breaching an initial agreement.

This year's World Championships at the Aljada Skate Park in the United Arab Emirates' third-most populous city thus offers a key event for athletes' Paris 2024 prospects.

French national coach Alexis Jauzion has underlined the importance of this qualifier, even for the host nation which has four guaranteed places and up to 12 able to qualify in skateboarding.

"We have to optimise the time we have left," Jauzion said, as reported by L'Équipe.

"There won't be that many opportunities to score points for qualifying.

"It will be difficult to continue with those who did not convert the test in Sharjah."

World Skate President Sabatino Aracu is pleased to be able to stage World Championships in both Olympic disciplines in Sharjah.

"As a truly global sport, we’re delighted to bring skating events of this stature to the Middle East for the first time, and in particular to see Sharjah play such an important role on the road to Paris 2024," the Italian official said, as reported by Arabian Business.

"The popularity of skating has really taken off in the region in recent years, and these two World Championship qualifiers offer skaters the chance to enjoy an impressive new skate park, while allowing local fans the opportunity to see the world’s top professionals up close."

More than 300 athletes are expected to take part at the World Championships.

Competition began today with women's qualifying in the street discipline, and is set to be followed by men's qualifying tomorrow.

Quarter-finals are then scheduled for Friday (February 3), followed by the semi-finals on Saturday (February 4) and the finals on Sunday (February 5).

Competition in the Park World Championships is due to start next Wednesday (February 8) and run until February 12.

The top five athletes in the Olympic world skate ranking for the street discipline have received byes to the quarter-finals.

On the women's side, these are Japanese quartet Funa Nakayama, Momiji Nishiya, Yumeka Oda and Rizu Akama, and Brazil's Rayssa Leal.

Nishiya and Nakayama won gold and bronze respectively at Tokyo 2020, with Leal taking silver.

The men's top five consists of the United States' Nyjah Huston, France's Aurélien Giraud, Gustavo Ribeiro of Portugal, and Argentinian pair Matias Dell Olio and Mauro Iglesias.

Today's women's street qualification was led by 12-year-old Australian Chloe Covell, who dominated with a huge score of 83.15 points.

Japanese duo Aoi Uemura and Coco Yoshizawa trailed in second and third with 65.28 and 61.15 respectively.

A total of 27 from the 81 competing progressed to Friday's quarter-finals.

Skateboarding has already been confirmed on the programme for Los Angeles 2028.

At Paris 2024, competition is due to take place on the famous Place de la Concorde from July 27 to August 7.