Five new sports you can see at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. What you need to know
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) which oversees the Olympic Games, the pinnacle of athletic competitions, considers multiple factors when deciding what sports are allowed. In almost every edition, some new sports are added to the competition while others are removed. For this edition of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, there are a record 339 medal events taking place with five new sports added to the roster.
Surfing
Surfing is perhaps the most surprising addition to the Olympics given that it obviously requires very specific conditions. This is one of the few Olympic Sports where weather conditions can heavily influence who occupies the podium. Athletes must compete against each other while facing changing conditions in the state of waves, the direction and strength of the wind, and the flow of the tide.
The International Surfing Association has been lobbying the IOC since 1995, however it was only when Thomas Bach was elected IOC president in 2013 and decided the Games needed more youth sports that surfing’s Olympic ambitions started to make headway.
There will be a men’s contest and a women’s contest, both featuring preliminary-round heats where the best of each four-person heat structure advanced to the next round, followed by a head-to-head knockout competition. For this edition, only shortboards will be used, which are about six feet (1.8 m) in length rather than nine feet (2.7 m) for longboards.
The surfing competitions are held at Tsurigasaki Beach in Ichinomiya, which is about 45 miles (72 km) southeast of the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.
The competition kicked off on Sunday, 25 July, and so far Brazil’s Italo Ferreira and the US’s Carissa Moore have emerged victorious. All eyes are on Ferreira, who is the 2019 world champion and has an inspiring backstory, having learned to surf while standing on the foam box his father sold fish from.
Most reckon the women’s event is between the USA’s Carissa Moore and the two Australians, Stephanie Gilmore and Sally Fitzgibbons.
After its debut in Tokyo, surfing is set to appear at least one more time at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, though the surfing competition will be held 9,800 miles (15,700 km) from France in Tahiti.
The gold medal will be awarded to the athlete with the…
Read More: Five new sports you can see at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. What you need to know 2021-07-26 07:00:00