Santo Domingo 2026: 13 Years Old, a 60-Point Gap — Has Caribbean Skateboarding Found Its Next Generation?

On August 5, 2026, at the Malecón Deportivo skatepark in Santo Domingo, skateboarding made its debut at the Central American and Caribbean Games. Two titles up for grabs, men’s and women’s street. On the men’s side, Colombia’s Jhancarlos González locked up the contest with 176.64 points. On the women’s side, Puerto Rico’s Esmeralda Butler won at 13 years old with 150.76 — a full 60 points clear of second place. A gap like that in an international final is almost unheard of.

⏱ Read time: 6 min

Men's podium: González out front, two kids right behind

Jhancarlos González left no room for doubt. 176.64 points, 36 clear of second place. The 29-year-old Colombian had already topped qualifiers the day before with an 81.33 — he just kept rolling. Behind him, it came down to a hair: Gabriel Lavallée, 15 years old, takes silver for Puerto Rico with 140.22, just 1.14 points ahead of Mexico’s Brayan Coria.

• 1. Jhancarlos González176.64

  Colombia, 29 years old — 1st in qualifiers with an 81.33

• 2. Gabriel Lavallée140.22

  Puerto Rico, 15 years old — a 75.56 on his 2nd best trick, the contest's 2nd-highest single score

• 3. Brayan Coria139.08

  Mexico — edged out by 1.14 points

Women's podium: 150.76 vs 90.62, the most lopsided final of the contest

Esmeralda Butler was 13 years old on finals day, the youngest member of the entire Puerto Rican delegation in Santo Domingo. She put down a 77.89 on her second run, then a 72.87 on her second best trick. Total: 150.76. Mexico’s Geraldine Sánchez took silver at 90.62. Venezuela’s María Arias rounded out the podium at 80.08.

Fourth place tells the other half of the story: Jazmín Álvarez, the Colombian who skated the Paris 2024 Games, stalls out at 72.85 after missing her best trick attempts. An Olympian, in fourth, behind a 13-year-old kid who has never set foot in an Olympic Games. That’s exactly the kind of day street skating produces and other sports almost never do.

• 1. Esmeralda Butler150.76

  Puerto Rico, 13 years old, Vega Baja — 1st in qualifiers with a 71.57

• 2. Geraldine Sánchez90.62

  Mexico, Guanajuato — ranked 107th in the world

• 3. María Arias80.08

  Venezuela

• 4. Jazmín Álvarez72.85

  Colombia — Paris 2024 Olympian, missed her best tricks

The August 4 qualifiers: 17 skaters, 10 countries, one skatepark

The day before finals, 17 skaters lined up — 7 women, 10 men — sent by Panama, Honduras, Costa Rica, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic and Barbados. On paper, that’s a regional field. In reality, it’s the first time these ten federations have sent skaters to a Games — on a real competition skatepark, with World Skate judges and an official ranking on the line.

Butler had already topped the women’s qualifiers with a 71.57. González had done the same on the men’s side with an 81.33. No surprises on the top step the next day — the surprise was the gap.

3 runs, 3 best tricks: the format that flipped the women's final

The format is standard: three runs, then three best trick attempts. The total adds up the top scores. Sounds harmless — it’s actually what created the 60-point gap on the women’s side. Butler converted twice: a 77.89 run and a 72.87 best trick. Álvarez, the Olympian, missed hers and ended up stacking runs with no bonus on top.

That’s the cruel logic of competitive street: you can be the most solid skater in the field and go home without a medal because your three attempts didn’t land. On the men’s side, Lavallée played the exact opposite hand — without his 75.56 best trick, he doesn’t take silver. We’ve seen it on other circuits this season, notably at the X Games 2026 finals, where clean runs weren’t enough.

Jhancarlos González: 5th at Tampa in April, gold in Santo Domingo in August

González’s name doesn’t come out of nowhere. In April, he finished 5th at Tampa Pro 2026 — ahead of a good chunk of the world circuit, at the gnarliest indoor contest on the calendar. Back in 2024, he was already on the World Skate Games podium in Italy, taking bronze alongside Toa Sasaki and Matías Dell Olio.

Drop a skater of that caliber into a regional field and you get 176.64 points and a contest wrapped up before it’s over. His federation, for its part, isn’t hiding where it’s looking: this title is being framed as a stepping stone on the road to Los Angeles 2028. The real battle will play out elsewhere — on the World Skate circuit, not on the Malecón.

So — next generation, or one lucky day? The answer fits in a single flag

The answer is yes — but it doesn’t apply to the whole region. It applies to Puerto Rico, and nobody else. Across two skateboarding events, the island walks away with two medals, won by a 13-year-old girl and a 15-year-old boy. Not a veteran, not a rider established on the circuit: two teenagers from the same rock, on the same day, on the same skatepark.

Butler is no accident either. At 11, she was already finishing 20th at a world championship. In 2025, she took 4th at the Junior Pan American Games in Asunción. Santo Domingo is the next step up, not the first one. And her “I’m so happy, I can’t believe it” dropped to reporters right after, medal dedicated to the parents who drove her to practice, says everything about where she’s coming from.

As for the rest: no, the region hasn’t tipped over. Ten nations, 17 skaters, and a men’s title won by a 29-year-old Colombian pro who’s already ranked worldwide — that’s still a narrow field. What changed on August 5 is that a country of three million people proved it could produce two teenage medalists in a single afternoon. It’s the same script we’ve watched play out elsewhere, with Rayssa Leal in Brazil or Lucie Schoonheere in France: one kid breaks out, and three years later there are ten more coming up behind her. Remember the name Esmeralda Butler. You’ll be seeing it again.

A Paris 2024 Olympian beaten by 78 points by a 13-year-old girl: weak regional field, or a genuine reality check? Sound off in the comments ↓

We’re tracking every result from this season’s skate contests over at nosk8.com.

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