Tokyo 2020 Surfing: Can We Call it a Success?

Finally, more than a year after it was initially scheduled, we have two surfing gold medallists. Neither Italo Ferreira nor Carissa Moore’s wins came as any great surprise, nor were the conditions in which they won – so at the end of it all, was the contest a success? 

Subpar conditions

Let’s be honest, the waves weren’t great. Rarely if ever do we see the world’s best competing in conditions of that quality (or lack thereof) on the Championship Tour, and from all reports we were potentially lucky to even get what we did at Tsurigasaki Beach. Had the window been a week earlier or a week later, we might have been crying out for the head-high, windy storm swell which prevailed over the course of last Monday and Tuesday. 

But of course, the Games won’t be held in Tokyo every year, and at least for the foreseeable future the event will most likely take place in substantially better conditions than what we saw this week. The 2024 Games are set to take place in Paris, where as you are probably aware there aren’t a whole lot of great waves, but given Tahiti is recognised as French, Teahupo’o is on the cards as that year’s location – one of the best barrelling reef breaks in the world, it’s a far cry from Tsurigasaki Beach.

Four years later we head to Los Angeles, meaning there will be a plethora of breaks for event organisers to choose from. Trestles would be the ultimate choice given it’s been chosen to host the inaugural season-ending Championship Tour contest this year, Rincon is renowned as one of the most perfect waves in the world, and Malibu Beach, whose waves are perhaps not quite at the level of Trestles and Rincon, can still serve up world-class rides and is an icon of the region.

In 2032, it’s recently been announced, the Games will head to Australia for the third time, with Brisbane set to play host this time around. Brisbane itself, of course, might not have waves at the level of the aforementioned two locations, but if we can head to Tahiti for the Paris Games then I reckon we can head an hour south to the Gold Coast in 2032. Kirra would be the obvious choice down there, with Snapper Rocks its main competition.

So while Tsurigasaki Beach might have been a somewhat underwhelming start to surfing at the oldest continuing sporting competition in the world, there’s a lot more to look forward to heading into the future. At some point, this issue will arise again – not every incarnation of the Games will take place in SoCal or Queensland – but it’s also worth remembering that there was serious consideration put into hosting this year’s contest in a wave pool. Based on the rapid development of this industry around the world, by 2036 we’ll likely have a whole lot more of them scattered around, and these could also be options for any future Games in landlocked nations. 

Waves aside – did people care?

Regardless of the conditions, however, there was always one other factor which was going to play the biggest role in whether or not the contest was a success; the buy-in of the surfers. For fans to care, the athletes need to care, and this is particularly important for sports which have regular major competitions throughout the course of each and every year. There are numerous sports for which standing on the podium at Tokyo this year will not be the pinnacle, and invariably this reduces the investment in the event of the athletes and subsequently the fans.

Often, new sporting contests take a little while to develop significance, but it appears this is not likely to be an issue with surfing at the Games. Maybe the Championship Tour level surfers would still prefer to be crowned a world champion than a gold medallist, but nonetheless the importance of the contest at Tsurigasaki Beach for virtually every athlete who entered the water was plain to see.

You need only look at the responses of the Australian athletes for an example. The image of Steph Gilmore holding her head in her hands in the water after going down to South Africa’s Bianca Buitendag, or even more poignantly, the post-loss interview with an emotional Sally Fitzgibbons in which she stated that it was ‘the hardest loss’ she had endured in her entire career, are both indications of just how desperately these surfers wanted to get onto the podium. Conversely, take a look at the sheer joy on Owen Wilson’s face as he ran out of the water after beating Gabriel Medina to claim a bronze medal. Clearly, this meant something to them.

Maybe part of that was a result of the opportunity to become the first medallist ever in surfing, but typically new events grow in significance as they develop a history. Add to that the fact that the upcoming Games will be held in far friendlier conditions, and it’s hard to imagine that the investment surfers have in getting on the podium in Paris/Tahiti, Los Angeles, Brisbane and beyond will do anything but grow.

And that, realistically, is all that the IOC could have asked for. The conditions might not have been great, nor the spectacle as a result, but the success of this contest was never going to be judged purely on the quality of the competition itself. The fact that there was such a clear buy-in from the athletes suggests that we’ll continue to get the best in the world competing, and more importantly caring, about winning gold. And any competition which the best surfers in the world are desperate to win, particularly when it’s held at places like Teahupo’o, Trestles and Kirra, will invariably get plenty of attention from surfing fans around the world. The conditions might have been the worst we’ll bother watching pro surfing in all year, but regardless, it’s hard to argue the contest was anything but a success.