By Erika Scafuro

Since several years surfing has become even more popular. To the point of entering the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games that, due to Covid-19 pandemic, were postponed one year.
Now the greatest sporting event is coming: from 23 July to 8 August sports enthusiasts from all over the world will follow the athletes representing their nations. Surfing lovers will witness the debut of the discipline of surfing.

Which and how many athletes will participate? How will the Olympic Games format be and where will the competitions take place?
The partecipation of surfing competitions will be open to the best professional surfers. 20 men and 20 women will challenge separately in 6 rounds held in Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, located in Ichinomiya town on Chiba Prefecture’s Pacific coastline.

International Surfing Association selected the participating athletes through a qualification process that was based on the results of 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour, 2021 ISA World Surfing Games, 2019 ISA World Surfing Games, 2019 Pan American Games and Host nation slot.

Among the provisional names of the surfers qualified for Tokyo 2020 we find, to name a few, for Men: Kanoa Igarashi (Japan), John John Florence (USA), Gabriel Medina, Italo Ferreira (Brazil), Jordy Smith (South Africa) and for Women: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS), Carissa Moore (USA), Caroline Marks (USA).

As you can read from the official Tokyo 2020 website the surfing event of Olympic Games will see athletes compete with shortboards while performing manoeuvers and techiniques.
Since the races will take place in the Pacific Ocean, it is essential that athletes consider all factors as the shape of each wave, the strenght and direction of the wind, height of the tide, current, and many other variables.
Their score will depend on the application of various judging criteria, such as manoeuvres, degree of difficulty, speed, power etc.
Waiting for the Olympic torch to be lit and that this great sporting event can get underway at such an important time in history.
The debut of surfing at the Olympics Games is really a great achievement. The surfing competition is scheduled for July 25, when it will be written a fundamental page in the history of the sport.