Look, we’re great at swimming and decent at field hockey and cycling – but can you imagine how many gold medals ‘Straya could stand to win if surfing was an official Olympic sport?
IMAGINE NO MORE, for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has just approved five new sports for the 2020 Games in Tokyo and our national pastime is one of ’em.
~blue crush 4eva~
Just think about the high-level surfing talent hailing from our great country: shark-punching legend Mick Fanning, Sally Fitzgibbons, Joel Parkinson, Matt Wilkinson – the list goes on.
Then there’s up-and-comers like 14-year-old Jay Brown, from Sydney’s Cronulla, and 18-year-old Victorian Alysse Cooper, who could well ride their way to gold for Australia.
It marks the end of a 20-year campaign by the surfing world for recognition as an Olympic sport.
Earlier this year, Surfing Australia chief exec Andrew Stark spoke of the body’s deep (blue) desire for the sport to be included:
“Surfing’s inclusion into the Olympics would be a dream come true for our sport. We have been striving for many years to achieve Olympic Games inclusion and we certainly believe the Olympics will be better off with our sport’s inclusion.”
Too bloody right.
In addition to surfing, skateboarding, baseball/softball, karate and climbing were also added to the 2020 programme.
It’s all part of the Olympics’ plan to attract younger athletes and viewers to future Games.
“We want to take sport to the youth,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “With the many options that young people have, we cannot expect any more that they will come automatically to us. We have to go to them.”
The new sports will see about 474 new athletes fighting for medals in 18 new comps.
TOKYO, WATCH ‘YO BACK.
Source: IOC.
Photo: Channel 9.
