Surfing may be locked in for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, but despite the Gold Coast’s status as one of the surf-bum capitals of the world, the sport won’t be included when the city hosts the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (GOLDOC) chairman, Peter Beattie, an obvious stickler for the rules, confirmed yesterday that surfing will not be an official event at the 2018 Games, stating, ‘Surfing is not a core or optional sport of the Commonwealth Games and is hence ineligible as a sport for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.’
Considering table tennis and lawn bowls are official sports, this seems a little unfair. Surely surfing is more ‘core’ than either of those excuses for getting on the piss?
In an interview with the ABC Gold Coast, Surfing Australia chief executive Andrew Stark expressed his dismay that a city so synonymous with riding waves (and dropping-in) won’t be playing host to one of its most popular sports.
‘If you think about the Gold Coast, the most iconic sport is probably surfing,’ he argued. ‘So it seems a bit odd not to have surfing included in the Commonwealth Games.’
Even more odd is the fact that Borobi, the official mascot of the 2018 Commonwealth Games, is a surfing koala. But that small anomaly aside, there’s a whole bunch of more obvious reasons as to why the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games would be a great platform to launch surfing onto the mainstream sporting stage, especially considering it’s already headed in that direction.
Firstly, it’s the Gold Coast, and with waves like the Superbank, Burleigh Heads, and Duranbah in its backyard, there’s a reason why nobody there seems to work. With the Games scheduled to take place in April, which is traditionally a great time of year for waves on the East Coast of Australia, there’s a good chance that the competition could be staged in at least fun-looking conditions, if not a full-blown shack-fest down at Kirra. Broadcast around the world, this spectacle would certainly help build anticipation for what could otherwise be a shaky debut at the Olympic Games in 2020, as the beachies near Tokyo aren’t exactly renowned for pumping surf. On top of that, there’s more than enough countries in the Commonwealth who could field a team of rippers, with Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Fiji all boasting surfers who’ve competed on the world stage. And finally, again, it’s the Gold Coast, it’s not like showcasing the region’s waves is suddenly going to blow out the line-up—that already happened a long time ago.
For now, though, surfing will have to make do with its possible inclusion in the arts and cultural festival taking place at the Games … all while a giant koala struts around holding a board.
