But which ten?
The 2020 Olympiad, which will take place in Tokyo and feature surfing for the first time in Olympic history, is around the corner. Time flies when we’re having fun and oh how we’ve been having fun. Haven’t we?
Elo?
Haven’t we?
Well, the Olympics and I don’t care and you don’t care but we might care next summer so let’s examine the qualification process as just explained by the Adventure Sports Network:
Here’s the deal: There will be a total of 40 surfers competing in the 2020 Olympic Games – 20 men and 20 women. Each country can only bring a total of four surfers – two men and two women. This ensures that at least 10 surfing nations will get an opportunity to perform on the big stage.
The lion’s share of the competitors will come via the World Surf League (WSL). The top 10 men and top eight women at the end of the 2019 WSL Championship Tour will be eligible for the Games. The tour kicks off in Australia in April, and ends in Hawaii in December.
Based on their placing, four men and four women will emerge from the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games, which takes place at Kisakihama Beach in Japan from Sept. 7 – 15. This will also be a trial run for the Olympics and all Olympic hopefuls are required to surf in it, so expect to hear a lot of hype when the contest rolls around this fall.
Etc.
The “…at least 10 surfing nations…” bit seems fun and let’s make a bet on which 10 surfing nations will be represented. I’m going with:
Australia
The United States
Brazil
France
Portugal
Japan
South Africa
Italy
Indonesia
Tahiti
Runner up: Senegal (due the inspiring work of Black Girls Surf at world’s best training wave in Venice Beach, California.)
Your turn.
All joking aside, nationality should not come in to it, how can one of the following- Italo, Toledo or Medina not be involved so we can watch some kook from Azerbaijan nearly drown in 2 foot windslop?
Nah, Tahiti is part of the French Republic.
“The lion’s share of the competitors will come via the World Surf League (WSL). The top 10 men and top eight women at the end of the 2019 WSL Championship Tour will be eligible for the Games.”
Clearly the WSL is still sexist. Men get 10 spots and women only get 8??? We better let Black Girls Surf AND Brown Girls Surf AND that lawyer from Byron Bay know about this. This is a lawsuit just waiting to be filed, as this is clearly sexism. Just wait till that chick from Black Girls Surf gets Dirk Ziff in her sights. White, male, rich- he has a target on his back and she is clearly entitled to some serious compensation for Dirk’s repression of her and her surf team.
China got some balls on him!
Somewhere.
I think’s about a goddam time, to a Russian / CCCP / URSS surfer…
Let’s make a campaign to naturalize one of the WSL’s surfers!!!
Vote for one guy!
My votes goes to…
11 World Champion Sockless Sustainable Bald Guy!
Who’s with me???!!!
New Zealand over most of the European countries, for sure.
Finally a comp
Where the men and woman have
Equal prize money
Laos, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, Bolivia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kosovo, Mongolia, Vatican City,
There that’s my top ten.
No doubt. And best looking gf’s
Coughs twice! Ahem…
Duke Kahanamoku represented the USA, so I think that is the end of that discussion….
And that was even before Hawaii was a state. Hawaii was just a territory then and it was still considered America in the olympics then.
Ahem, we already took care of this pesky Olympic qualifying thing. Also, they got it wrong over at ASN. Oops!
“The first ten men — and the first eight women — in the CT rankings in December 2019 go to the Olympics. That sounds simple, but remember the part where each country may only send two surfers? If you’re from the US, Australia, or Brazil, you’ll need to be among the top two ranked surfers from your country on the CT. This is where the fun begins.” Read, etc, https://beachgrit.com/2018/05/olympics-jordy-smith-left-out-in-the-cold/
Replace Italy with New Zealand.
The are more good kiwi surfers than Italians and Italy doesn’t even have waves for over 90% of the year.
Just coz Italy has got 1 guy that was on the CT last year and does nearly all his non contest surfing in France should’nt qualify Italy ahead of NZ.
Otherwise the other 9 countries are all spot on the money going by representations in CT and QS events.
Too much weights, not enough speed work
The kiwis are too stoned. They still think it’s 1997
The kiwis would be pretty pissed off ay that there not in your top ten.
I mean we have Brendon McCullum
I just hope that there’s not a women’s event, boring.!
My sister says
Get fucked ya cunt!
Watching women surf is as entertaining as watching paint dry.
Ben Marcus would write an article about it. But that’s a separate story.
oh hell yeah add it. i will sell out of beaies and acai and be rich!!!
There are 48 landlocked countries on this planet. The Olympics thrive on at least one feel-good story per sport. It’s just like watching the WSL, so much dead air to fill.
If Olympic Surfing survives to see Paris 2024, which landlocked country can we expect to bring us surfing’s newest feel-good story? My money is on Mongolia.
Some American and/or Australian below-the-cut CT surfers will probably have UAE and/or Qatari passports by the end of the year. There are already a whole lot on the women’s side who have become Germans
How many could become Chinese?
I don’t think Pooh Bear is as generous as the Emirs with handing out citizenships. They’ll probably play a longer game, using these olympics to check out the level of competition, have a big chuckle because “ha, easy win!”, and then set up training camps dotted around the coastline where hundreds of children are moulded to be podium finishers for 2028 onwards.