Forty competitors will paddle out into Tsurigasaki Beach on the morning of 25 July hoping to grab the first Olympic surfing medals
“We want to take sport to the youth,” said the IOC president, Thomas Bach, when announcing in 2016 that surfing would make its Olympic debut in Tokyo. Was that an expression of genuine altruism? Or an attempt at staying relevant to a generation that has become tired of traditional offerings? Or perhaps further evidence of the rampant commercialisation of the Games? It was probably a bit of all the above, but the first appearance at a Games is undeniably a watershed moment.
When the 40 competitors – a gender-equal cohort of 20 men and 20 women – paddle out into the waters off Tsurigasaki Beach on the morning of 25 July it will mark the culmination of a decades-long campaign by the International Surfing Association.
