Three years remain until surfing’s Olympic debut in the Tokyo Games. Still, one thing is clear. For better or worse, Olympic inclusion is a paradigm shift. It’s unclear how exactly the sport will transform, but decades from now it’s likely surfers will look back on 2020 as a major shift.
For all the talk of friendship and camaraderie through sport, the Olympic Games by all accounts are an extension of global pre-eminence – something International Relations scholars refer to as soft power. And like all forms of power, countries desire it (see also: the 2016 Russian doping scandal).
For some time the United States has remained dominant in the summer Olympics and to a lesser extent the winter Olympics – with over 1,000 total gold medals to date. The Soviet Union is second with 473. But tectonic shifts in global politics mean China is on the rise, and as a result is hungry for Olympic success.
What does all of this have to do with surfing’s humble enclave? Well, following the International Olympic Committee’s announcement last year in Rio that surfing would become an official event in Tokyo, China poured funds into developing a national surf team that would be groomed for Olympic contention come 2020. The man to do it, they decided, was none other than Peter “PT” Townend – the Australian surf legend who won surfing’s first world championship in 1976 and currently resides in Southern California.
According to a recent piece on ESPN, PT has been traveling to China in recent years to judge the Silver Dragon Shootout, which is held at a tidal bore on the Qiantang River in the town of Hangzhou. In 2012, a local TV station profiled him and in the package called him “the Michael Jordan of surfing,” elevating his profile in China. Last August, he was in town for the contest when the IOC announced surfing’s inclusion in the Tokyo Games. The next day an official from Beijing arrived to speak with PT about throwing his name in the hat to create and coach a Chinese Olympic surfing program.
“There were several other equally qualified names in the hat,” Townend told ESPN, “but the officials liked my so-called status of being the first world surfing champ.”
Since being selected, it’s been a process of virtually building a team from the ground up. First, PT went to Hainan, a tropical island with “water like Hawaii” that “looks like Bali.” He recruited a number of first generation Chinese surfers, including 29-year-old Pablo Huang who would become PT’s interpreter and assistant coach.
From there, PT visited a a stat-run swimming academy looking for prospects.
“Some of the kids had never seen the ocean,” Townend told ESPN. “I did some exercises, put them on a skateboard, had them jump to their feet on a surfboard, and whittled them down from 20 to six kids. Then they were told, ‘You’re not swimmers anymore. Now you’re surfers.'”
Recently, PT’s taken his squad to Southern California for friendly exhibitions like one recently held against San Clemente High School’s surf team at T Street, and to get a sense of the culture. It’s a two-week camp PT hopes to make an annual occurrence to continue the team’s training.
“Having represented my own country with a bronze medal in the world games in 1972 in San Diego, coached the Americans in 1984 and coached four world champions, it matters to me how surfing enters the Olympics,” Townend told ESPN. “I feel I owe it to the sport to make sure it’s done right. My personal reputation is at stake.”
