With a long history as a competitive sport, surfing was added to the Olympic schedule in the recently completed 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In Peru, people have been surfing in one form or the other for a very long time. Ancient warriors in Tahiti and Samoa used to train by surfing on their bodies and feet. The sport is also considered an art form and, throughout the 20th century, people surfed for fun in Hawaii and elsewhere around the world.
Why did it become an Olympic sport? The competition has expanded globally and it also became a widely watched and covered sport. It only made sense to add it to the list of Olympic sports.
Here in American, when we think ‘surfing’ we think (first and foremost) of Hawaii. So it’s fitting that native Hawaiian Carissa Moore took home the first gold medal.
