We’re a little over a year away from surfing’s Olympic debut, and a number of key details have yet to fully shake out. Namely, who will compete at this global event?
Back in March 2018, the International Olympic Committee approved the International Surfing Association’s proposed qualification scheme and, if you’ll recall, the countries that will field surf teams are all up in the air except for one: Japan. Because the Land of the Rising Sun is hosting the Games, it gets two allocated spots (one male, one female) guaranteed.
It’s all but certain that Kanoa Igarashi will be representing Japan in 2020, but of note is one specific caveat about those host country slots. “Should athletes from Japan qualify regularly, their slots will be reallocated to the highest ranked eligible surfers from the 2020 World Surfing Games,” the criteria explains. It’s still early days, but if Igarashi were to hang on to his current ranking on the WSL Championship Tour, he’d be one of the “first 10 eligible men” on the CT as stipulated by the qualification scheme and handily qualify for the Games.
And because each country may have up to two surfers per gender to represent their country, Japan could have two men and two women, if they qualify through the other criteria, that is.
Enter Hiroto Ohhara, Japan’s second great hope. The 22-year-old from Chiba was a virtual unknown until he burst on the scene with a win at the Vans U.S. Open in 2015. In the years since, he’s been unable to crack the top 30 of the WSL Qualifying Series rankings, but his year so far is off to a decent start – he currently sits 12th with a few decent results.
According to the qualification scheme, to represent his country Ohhara would need to do well at a single contest: the 2020 ISA World Surfing Games. The top four men there will get a bid to the Games. The location of the 2020 World Surfing Games is yet to be determined, but it is scheduled way in advance of the 2020 Games, sometime between April and May.
All that said, a solid result at the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games could put Ohhara in good position to qualify for the Olympics, too. Incidentally, the 2019 World Surfing Games will be held in Japan for the second year in a row. Japan’s a big place, sure, but it’s still home turf. Plus, with the motivation of surfing’s Olympic debut happening, essentially, at his home break, we have to imagine Ohhara is fired up to compete on the global stage. We’ll see if he gets the chance.
