Conservative news site Townhall reports today that International Surfing Association president Fernando Aguerre is making a push for surfing's inclusion in the 2020 Olympics, set to be held in Tokyo.
Following December reforms made by the International Olympic Committee (meant to make the Olympics easier and more affordable to host, more atractive to a wider audience, and more relevant to modern audiences), the ISA is making the hard sell to the committee.
"I am sure it will be one of the first Olympic venues to sell out of tickets," he told Kyodo News. "Today you go to any beach around the world and people are dressed like surfers, wearing surf brands, and they all want to surf. Surfing is a young sport, it's practiced by people of all ages, but it's also a sport that has captivated the hearts and minds of young people around the world."
Surfing's exclusion from the Olympics has long been attributed to worries about a scarcity of contestable surf in many potential Olympic locations. But for Aguerre, Olympic surfing's salvations comes in the form of outdoor wave parks, in line with those being built in Spain, Britain, and the US.
Aguerre went on to compare surfing's efect on Olympic success to that of snowboarding, which was added to the 1988 Nagano Olympics, captivating younger audiences and becoming one of the event's most beloved sports.
