As cheers drifted on the evening breeze along the Huangpu River, the final runs of the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup women's final brought the curtain down on the four-day 2026 FISE World Series Shanghai on Sunday.

In its third consecutive year at the Xuhui West Bund, the event adopted a free-entry, fully open model for the first time, merging competition venues with waterfront space and commercial areas.

The 180,000-square-meter carnival drew a cumulative 400,000 visits over four days, up about 50 percent year-on-year.

Featuring 18 events across five sports — BMX freestyle, skateboarding, breaking, scooter and inline skating — the urban sports festival was headlined by the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup and the UCI BMX Freestyle Flatland World Cup, both drawing the world's top-10 male and female riders.

Paris Olympic champion Deng Yawen also attended.

However, it was Chinese riders who stole the show in front of their home crowd.

In the women's park final, world and Asian Games champion Sun Sibei reclaimed the title, with Sun Jiaqi taking silver for a Chinese 1-2 finish, ahead of Australia's Natalya Diehm in third.

"Competing at home, you feel the audience's passion directly, with instant feedback," Sun Sibei said, adding that the open, riverside course added challenges and unpredictability to the competition — part of what makes extreme sports appealing.

Chinese teenager Liu Haoran claimed a third straight boys' junior park title and, moving up to the men's spine ramp pro event, set a personal best.

Hu Yihan won the women's spine ramp pro jam in BMX, Cao Yihuan topped the women's open spine ramp jam in skateboarding, and Wu Yuer led an all-Chinese podium in the BMX women's open park.

In the men's events, Japanese riders claimed both World Cup crowns while Hungary's Veronika Kadar won the women's flatland title.

An open arena

"The biggest breakthrough is the shift from a relatively closed professional competition to an urban sports carnival open to everyone," said Song Yulin, general manager of Hurricane Group Asia Pacific.

She noted that "lowering the entry threshold allows audiences to enjoy a full, interactive leisure and viewing experience".

She said the aim was to keep visitors on site longer — from morning warm-ups to 10 pm, during which time competitions and leisure activities unfolded simultaneously.

"FISE offers not just a competition, but an entire urban sports culture," she added.

The venues themselves broke with convention. "Instead of confining disciplines to enclosed competition grounds, this year's event embedded them into the waterfront space," said Gautier Vannereau, event manager of FISE Shanghai and head of event planning at Hurricane Group.

The flatland BMX World Cup made its on-water debut at the dock of West Bund Dream Center, where riders displayed balance and control against the backdrop of the Huangpu River.

Inside the Dome Art Center, the "fusion park" blurred the boundary between traditional street courses and park courses, with graffiti artists also painting live works.

Beyond the competitions, climbing walls, giant trampolines, pickleball and pet skateboarding contests, together with more than 100 brand booths, turned the waterfront into a carnival space where visitors could linger, play and socialize.

White paper

The festival's evolution dovetails with the growth of urban light sports — accessible, low-threshold activities embedded in urban public spaces.

Released alongside the event, the Urban Light Sports Development White Paper calculated the sector's market value at about 1.1 trillion yuan ($164.6 billion) with 260 million participants, growing at an annual rate of 12 to 15 percent.

The buzz around the event is also settling into long-term city assets. Chen Anda, deputy general manager of Shanghai West Bund Development (Group) Co, said it is laying the groundwork for the 2028 Olympic Qualifier Series, slated for May 11 to 14 at the West Bund.

Statistics show the 2025 FISE World Series generated 396 million yuan in direct economic impact and just over a billion yuan in indirect impact.

The expanded footprint and free access of this year's event are expected to have further spurred riverside consumption while bringing light urban sports into everyday life.