Photo: ISA
Surfing has made the shortlist of potential Olympic events to be added to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. The current list of 8 has been cut from the original 26 proposals, which included Tug of War as a potential Olympic event. Other events that didn’t make the cut were American football, billiards, and a proposal from the World Underwater Federation – which oversees sports like spearfishing, free diving, and submerged hockey.
The second phase of the selection process requires the International Surfing Association to present to the IOC, from which the selection committee will make a final decision at the 129th IOC Session in Rio in August of 2016.
Speaking about surfing’s shortlisting, ISA President, Fernando Aguerre, said, “The ISA is delighted that surfing continues to be considered for inclusion at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. We would like to thank and commend the IOC and Tokyo 2020 for providing us with this extraordinary opportunity to present the virtues and values of our sport.”
According to the committee, there is an emphasis on selecting sports that will be popular among young people in Tokyo, adding “value to the Games by engaging the Japanese population and new audiences worldwide.” That should leave surfing in good standing with Japan’s favor toward the sport, but other sports added to the 2020 Games’ shortlist are also highly popular in the Japanese market, like baseball and softball which both have large professional followings. The other seven sports on the shortlist, announced on June 22nd, were bowling, karate, roller sports, climbing, squash and martial arts.
