MASH thrills 92,000 visitors

"I am still flashed. Olympic Park was dancing. The atmosphere was phenomenal. After the debut of the street dance contest, I can only say: It was absolutely right to officially include this contest in the MASH family. The Theatron was filled to capacity, the dancers thrilled the audience with their moves and style," says Olympic Park Managing Director Marion Schöne and continues: "This year's MASH edition has definitely shown one thing: our action sports festival has won a firm place both with the top athletes from all over the world, who showed outstanding sport over the three days, and with the people of Munich. MASH is an event that brings everyone together, the fan and the family, young and old. That's something we can be proud of." Indeed, the action sports festival has become a highlight in the Olympic Park's event calendar since 2014, also thanks to the continuous support of the City of Munich and other partners.

Street Dance
The interest in the first street dance contest was huge. The atmosphere in Theatron and on the lawn steps at Olympic Lake was phenomenal. Crowded together, the spectators experienced thrilling battles between first-class street dancers. The preselection, for which 70 participants from the region, but also from Brazil and Morocco had registered, had to be held in a tent on Friday because of the weather conditions. Even more the dancers who had qualified for the main contest were looking forward to competing on Saturday evening against international top dancers who rarely take part in competitions in Munich. And it was simply fantastic. The undisputed winner of the 7-to-smoke (Allstyles) format was Candyman. He had flown himself in from France, danced his way through the preselection and then swept one dancer after the other out of the competition. In the final battle international Breaking 2vs2, Lil Zoo (Austria) and Phil Wizard (Canada) prevailed over Justen and Shane (both Netherlands). Even though he didn't win in the end, Said from Munich was especially happy about the street dance contest at MASH. As a "local", he was very happy to present his skills to the local audience together with Chau-Lin from Stuttgart, with whom he officially competed as a team for the first time, who thanked him for his participation and performance at MASH with thunderous applause.

BMX
The BMX contest at MASH was a true Kieran Reilly festival: Not only did the British trick machine win the Best Trick with a Triple Tailwhip to Barspin on Saturday. On Sunday, last year's winner and newly crowned European Champion went one better and took the win again. Until the third run, the field was led by someone else, namely 22-year-old underdog Jacob Thiem from the USA, who had an amazing first run. But the 21-year-old Kieran knew exactly what to do to win the contest: He unpacked a double flair in his last run, a trick that is rarely seen, but which ultimately gave him the victory and relegated the US American to second place. Third place went to Kieran's compatriot Declan Brooks, third at the 2023 European Championships and Olympic bronze medalists in 2021. Sikharin Supanmart was the only German rider in the final - Lennox Zimmermann (Bad Iburg) and Tobias Freigang (Wachtendonk) had already been eliminated in the qualification. But even though the 23-year-old from Dresden came last, he kept up well and the Munich audience celebrated him.

Skateboard
It was a pretty clear victory: Spain's Danny León won the skateboard final with a ten-point lead, ahead of his compatriot Jaime Mateu. Just behind him, young Tyler Edtmayer from Berlin secured third place. It was a final at the highest level - the performance level increased continuously from the elimination to the final. A true skateboarding festival for the fans on the lawn steps. Above all, it was Danny León's day: his first run was already very good, the second excellent despite a mistake, and the third run went perfectly for the 28-year-old. No one came close to his wealth of tricks and his technique on Saturday. A great performance was shown by 22-year-old Tyler Edtmayer: His almost perfect second run secured him third place in the men's MASH skateboard final. He was overtaken at the end by Jaime Mateu, who had improved enormously in his third run compared to the first two. The 27-year-old Spaniard also repeated his best trick victory from last year - this time with a frontside blunt indy grab on the MASH barrel.

In contrast to the men, it was a really close final in the women's competition. Lilly Stoephasius, who had already won the Best Trick on Saturday with a backside noseblunt, won the women's skateboard contest with a narrow points lead. Second place went to 15-year-old Lola Tambling from Great Britain, who consistently showed a very good performance in her three runs. However, her performance was not as tricky as Lilly's in her decisive first run. The 16-year-old from Berlin used the entire course according to the motto: higher, further, faster. Third place went to the 25-year-old Brazilian Yndiara Asp who, despite a very good second run, lacked the flow to pass the old and new MASH winner Lilly Stoephasius.

Wakeboard
Also at the eighth edition, the best international wakeboarders offered a spectacular contest. The women showed a super strong riding with few falls in their super final. In fact, it was an eye-to-eye showdown between the athletes and especially the three first-place finishers. In the end, the winner was the underdog, Lisa Baloo (25 years old) from Israel, whose tricks on the new set-up in the Olympic Lake were a bit more difficult than those of the second-placed American Jamie Lopina (25 years old) and the 16-year-old Rivers Hedrick (USA), who came in third, but was already able to enjoy the victory in the Team Contest on Friday with her compatriot Gavin Stuckey (17 years old). Unfortunately, it was not enough for Julia Rick from Cologne to make it to the podium this year.

It would have been too good to miss, but in the end it was not the hoped-for back-to-back victory for Cologne's Nico von Lerchenfeld, but "only" second place. But the wakeboarders also delivered a contest at the absolute highest level. But in the end, Pedro Caldas from Brazil, who showed top performances on all days, took the victory in the super final. Participating for the first time in Munich and immediately coming in third was 23-year-old Briton Joe Battleday. Unfortunately, "local" Dominik Gührs was already eliminated in the qualification.

MASH & More
The MASH Fest is the "secret ingredient" that makes the sports event in Olympic Park so unique. Here you can feel the lifestyle of action sports, here fans and families can experience even more of the MASH flair. More than 40 exhibitors from the fields of sport, lifestyle and sustainability presented products and offers from Hans-Jochen-Vogel-Platz down to Olympic Lake. The festival was once again a place of cultural diversity, with music from 17 artists and bands on the MASH stage, arts and design, infotainment and interaction - colourful, creative, varied and imaginative, for young and old. In addition, there were lots of exciting workshops and offers that invited visitors to participate and try things out.

By the way: Next year, MASH will celebrate its 10th anniversary from 2 to 4 August 2024. We look forward to seeing you again.

We will be happy to provide you with film footage and photos of MASH 2023 on our Scoopa platform. If you are interested, please write to Melanie Listl, ml@munich-mash.com, and we will be happy to register you.

More infos at www.munich-mash.com