The world’s modern Olympics were influenced by the Ancient Olympic Games held in Greece from 8th Century BC to the 4th Century AD. That’s well over thousands of years! The Olympic Games, which are now held every four years, is considered the world’s foremost sports competition with more than 200 nations participating. Although we have just experienced the 2016 Summer Olympics, we all have something really exciting to look forward to in the next one. It has recently been announced that Surfing is going to take place as a competitive sport in the next Olympics. Just a few months ago The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board approved the venues for the Olympic debut of five new sports which are surfing, skateboarding, sport climbing, karate, and baseball/softball.
Even more exciting for surfers, the location and wave has just been announced! The 2020 Summer Olympics will take place in Tokyo. And the Tokyo 2020 games has just announced that the first Olympic surfing competition will take place at Tsurigasaki Beach, in Japan. Tsurigasaki Beach is located in the Chiba prefecture, between Kujukuri and Ichinomiya. The Japanese surf break gets 180-degree (NE to SE) swells from the Pacific Ocean.
The Olympic surfing competition will feature 40 surfers – 20 male, and 20 female athletes – from various nations. There will only be a shortboard division, and competitors will not all come from the World Surf League’s Championship Tour- which means that they wont all be famous professionals like Kelly Slater or Steph Gilmore. Like all other Olympic sports, there will be three surfers receiving medals for their wave riding and skills. Bronze, silver, and gold. So what country will be the first to take home the gold? US Brazil, or maybe even Japan. Well, only four more years to go until we find out who will be the first few countries to take over the world of Olympic Surfing!