To surf, an athlete must catch a wave and ride it while standing, sitting, lying down, or in any other position on a surfboard (body surfing).
According to their priority and the rules governing interference, each surfer competing in a given event has the absolute right of way in the direction of their choosing (left or right).
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Surfing At The Summer Olympics – Shortboard
The first Olympic competition in surfing was held in the Tokyo Games in 2020. After the 2020 Olympics were pushed back to 2021 because to the COVID-19 epidemic, the Olympic Games were initially slated to take place in 2020.
The International Surfing Association (ISA) made the decision in 2018 to hold surfing in the ocean rather than an indoor wave pool at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Tsurigasaki Beach in Ichinomiya, Chiba, about 40 miles (64 km) outside of Tokyo, was selected as the competition site for the 2020 Games. The tournament will have a 16-day waiting period to ensure good surfing conditions. After the competition begins, it will take two days to conclude.
Methodology of Competition
A four-person heat format will be used at the 2020 Summer Olympics. At any one moment, there will be a total of four athletes competing. The top two finishers in each heat will advance. Twenty-five minute intervals will separate each heat, and the best two scores from each will count toward the final tally.
It is considered poor form for more than one surfer to attempt to ride the same wave at the same time. The surfer who is physically closer to the wave’s peak has priority. Penalties and loss of points may be assessed for interfering with the surfer who has the right of way.
Judging will be done by a panel, and each rider will receive a score out of ten (1 being the best, 10 being the worst) with two decimal places. e.g. 8.51. The score is determined by the level of difficulty of the moves made.
There should be a natural progression in the tempo, strength, and fluidity of each move.
Try to get in
The International Olympic Committee examined surfing for the 2020 Summer Olympics alongside baseball, softball, skateboarding, karate, and sport climbing on September 28th, 2015.
Five sports (including baseball and softball as a single sport) were approved by the International Olympic Committee on August 3, 2016, to be featured in the 2020 Summer Games.
For a long time, the fact that surfing requires an ocean current with waves and the risk of drowning made the IOC reluctant to include it in the Olympics. Sailing, on the other hand, can be held in a lake, so this was not an issue.
Participant Count
It is currently only high-performance shortboards for both men and women that will be eligible to compete in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Longboarding, bodyboarding, and stand-up paddleboarding are all subsets of surfing that could potentially make an appearance at future Olympics, such as Paris 2024 or Los Angeles 2028.
