From Ostia to Caracalla, the World Cup becomes a concrete test of urban “publicness”
Some spaces are public only on paper. Others truly become public when people cross them, use them, inhabit them and turn them into opportunities for encounter. The Skateboarding World Cup taking place in Rome in recent days offers a way of looking at Ostia, Colle Oppio and Caracalla from this perspective: not as mere urban backdrops, but as places where the public dimension of the city is actively practised.
It is a question of “publicness” — as we have discussed on thebrief — rather than regeneration alone. The public quality of a space is not measured solely by its formal openness, but by its ability to accommodate multiple uses, generate a sense of belonging and produce collective value.
Skateboarding, with its urban, informal and intergenerational nature — something we had already explored on the occasion of an exhibition in London — thus becomes an effective lens through which to read the relationship between sport, heritage, neighbourhoods and the right to the city.
The first stop is The Spot, on the Ostia seafront, the major skatepark of Rome’s coastline. The Park competitions were held here, in what has become one of the most interesting examples of how sport can turn into a tool for inclusion and social presence. Created in an area too often described only through its fragilities, The Spot is now engaging young people, families and associations. Not merely as a sports facility, but as a space open to training, cultural events and activities dedicated to inclusion. Its growth is helping to strengthen the identity of an important part of Rome’s coastline, attracting international competitions and restoring centrality to a place lived every day by the local community.
The same logic runs through the wider World Cup programme. Around the competitions there are not only sporting events, but also exhibitions, street art, music, family activities and initiatives dedicated to inclusive sport. Skateboarding thus becomes a connector, capable of bringing together different generations and transforming urban spaces into places of encounter. This is also what happens at the Parco di Caracalla, which hosts the “Skate Village” during the event. In one of the city’s most evocative historic settings, archaeological heritage enters into dialogue with contemporary urban cultures. The result is not simply a temporary occupation of space, but the construction of new ways of moving through and experiencing the city. People reclaim places that, in this way, become theatres of social relations, sporting activities and cultural opportunities. The same dynamic can be seen at Colle Oppio. The skatepark overlooking the Colosseum stands as a symbol of Rome’s ability to bring its history into relation with contemporary urban practices. Used every day by young people from different neighbourhoods, it has helped bring vitality and constant presence back to a central area of the city. It is no coincidence that, over the years, it has become one of the most recognisable places on the international skateboarding scene.
In all three cases, a common element emerges. Regeneration does not coincide solely with the physical recovery of a space. It works when it is able to generate relationships, communities and new opportunities for encounter. Sport, especially urban sport — and Rome itself offers several other examples — has a particular capacity: it activates places that might otherwise remain mere containers.
These are not isolated episodes. The same idea of sport as social infrastructure is now visible in other parts of Rome as well. In the Prenestino district, ASD Judo Preneste – Polisportiva G. Castello is celebrating sixty years of activity as an educational presence in the suburbs, capable of accompanying generations of girls and boys through discipline, community and inclusion. In Monteverde, on Viale dei Quattro Venti, an area long marked by neglect has recently been transformed and reopened as a new sports and play park, entrusted also to the daily care of local residents. These are different experiences, yet they can be read within the same trajectory: sport does not simply upgrade physical spaces; it builds trust, belonging and shared responsibility. It is in this ability to transform sports facilities and playgrounds into places of relationship that the city concretely measures its public dimension.
Cover image: Day 3, men’s and women’s competition © World Skateboarding Tour World Cup Rome 2026
