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HIGHLIGHTS

  • Surfing is making its Olympics debut at the Tokyo
  • Surfing event might by the typhoon at the Olympics
  • Surfers not worried by the typhoons, says bring it on

Surfing, which is set to make its Olympics debut at the Olympics, might face a hiccup as there is a prospect of typhoon forming off the Tokyo coast next week.

Surfing’s proud Olympic debut on Sunday will be the result of a decades-long struggle for acceptance. But the Tokyo Olympics are being held during typhoon season and the weather is a major talking point.

Surfline, which is providing forecasts for the 2020 Games, predicts rising tropical cyclone surf starting on Sunday and continuing through next week, with a prolonged run of medium-sized waves during the eight-day competition window.

“There’s going to be good waves, there’s a strong typhoon here off the coast of Japan and we know that the waves are getting bigger,” said International Surfing Association president Fernando Aguerre.

Aguewrre, 64, recounted surfing’s long and rocky road to the Olympics, from an initial meeting with former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Juan-Antonio Samaranch in the mid-1990s to the announcement in 2016 that it would be part of the Tokyo Games.

“We didn’t know how hard it is to become an Olympic federation as a matter of practice, all the things that we needed to learn, and are still learning,” he revealed.

However, the competitors at the Olympics can’t wait to take on weather during the event.

“It’s small but there is swell on the way! Let’s go,” wrote Australian surfer Owen Wright on Instagram.

No matter how rough the weather gets, New Zealander Ella Williams said competitors would take it as it comes.

“We’re prepared for that, we’ve been preparing for a while. It brought us here and we’ll be fine,” she said.

“The waves have been a little bit small thus far, but there’s a really good swell on the way, looking like some great winds for maybe Monday, so that should give us a good platform to showcase for the world what it’s all about,” New Zealand coach Matt Scorringe told a media conference.

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India today

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