At some recent contests I've covered in the US, Brazilian skaters have comprised more than half the competition field and taken most of the top spots. So what happens when you move the show to their turf? A complete sweep: EXPN.com has results and a nice blog from the X Games Brazil event that went down this weekend in Sao Paulo.

On vert it was Bob Burnquist, Digo Menezes, and Lincoln Ueda on the podium, with countryman Sandro Dias in 4th – he landed a 900 after the contest, the second one he's pulled this month (he won Best Trick with it at the AST China Invitational) and could be staging a comeback after a shaky year in 2007. I had to scroll all the way down to 5th place to find somebody who wasn't from Brazil, but when I did it was one of my favorites: Young gun Adam Taylor. Now, granted, podium hogs Shaun White, Bucky Lasek, Pierre-Luc Gagnon, and Andy Macdonald sat this one out, so I'm not going to read too much into it, but let's be honest: Brazilian vert podium sweeps are not going to be out of the question on US turf this year. Should be interesting. In keeping with my New Year's resolution – and a personal promise to Mimi Knoop and Cara-Beth Burnside – to cover women's skateboarding as extensively as possible in 2008 (and while I'm on the topic of Brazilian skateboarders), scroll down through those vert results to #18 to find Karen Jones holding it down against the guys. The EXPN site has a nice profile of Karen Jones up here.

On street I'd say the chances we'll see some Brazilian podium sweeps are even more likely: Lucas Carvalho, Rodolfo Ramos, and Paulo Correa claimed the podium at X Games Brazil, and you'll have to scroll all the way down to Dayne Brummet at #9 to find an American in the standings. Same disclaimer as above: X Games 12 and 13 champ Chris Cole sat this one out, as did Ryan Sheckler and a lot of other luminaries who kill it at these kinds of contests, but the point stands: These South American dudes are taking over, and as more and more of them get visas to get up here we're going to learn more and more about how awesome they are: EXPN is reporting attendance for the X Games Brazil event at just shy of 50,000. I'm working the Dew Tour and other events again this summer, and I just purchased my first Portuguese phrasebook: It's quickly becoming part of my job requirement.

I found this clip from the X Games Brazil 2008 street Finals on YouTube in case you want to try to brush up on your Portuguese: