Betty DepolitoThe International Surfing Association (ISA) announced an agreement with the World Surf League (WSL) on the quali cation principles for surfing in the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020, ensuring the participation of the world’s best surfers from the WSL Championship Tour (CT) as well as promoting universal opportunities for surfers around the world.
In principle, the agreement will see up to 18 of the 40 places at the Games reserved for WSL Championship Tour (CT) surfers (10 men and eight women), with the remaining 22 places determined at the 2019 and 2020 ISA World Sur ng Games, the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, and a single slot (each for men and women) for the host nation (Japan). With the sup- port of the WSL, the ISA eligibility rules for Olympic participation will require surfers to make themselves available for their national teams to compete in the
ISA World Surfing Games in 2019 and 2020 and, if selected by their National Federation, to participate. The nal decision on the complete process is subject to the approval of the Executive Board of the Interna- tional Olympic Committee (IOC) next month. Sur ng was con rmed as an Olympic sport for Tokyo 2020 in August of 2016 after decades of campaigning by the ISA for the global development of sur ng. Surf- ing will also be included in the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima.