Aussie surfers preparing for Tokyo

AUSTRALIA – Surfing’s introduction at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics can mean two gold medals for Australia, according to seven-time world champion Layne Beachley.

Beachley, the chair of Surfing Australia, believes the country is well placed to capitalise on the sport’s involvement at an Olympic level.

Australians have won 14 of the past 18 female world surfing championships and two of the past four in the men’s category.

“I see this as a game-changer for surfing because it’s going to expose us to a whole new audience and create a lot more attention,” she said.

“Especially for the women who are going to be battling it out for equality for media attention and sponsorship rights and endorsements.

“I can honestly say the one thing missing from my trophy cabinet is an Olympic gold medal.”

Australians Matt Wilkinson and Tyler Wright lead the respective world championships this year, while Isabella Nicholls, Nikki van Dijk and Jack Freestone have all won junior world championships in recent years.

And Beachley said given Australia’s current set up which has children as young as five in development programmes, the nation should be poised for success.

“It’s something else that our athletes who are coming through our high performance programmes can aspire to,” she said.

Surfing was one of six sports added to the Tokyo programme for 2020, along with skateboarding, sports climbing, karate, baseball and softball.

And Beachley is not concerned the sport will run into the same problems as the Olympic reintroduction of golf has this year, where a number of the world’s top ranked players have withdrawn from Rio.

“It’s just another aspiration goal,” she told Fox Sports in another interview. “A world championship is the highest pinnacle of the sport for now.

“But to compete for your country, to compete as a team, to stand on the podium with an Australian flag behind your head and hearing the national anthem, we don’t even know what it means.”

Surfing Australia’s chief executive, Andrew Stark, said it would work with the Australian Institute of Sport to prepare the strongest team possible for the Tokyo Games.

“We’ve got such depth, not just the athletes who are on tour now but the athletes that we are watching coming through,” he said.

Stark said he also hopes the sports inclusion in the Games helps boost junior participation.

- ABC