The Paris 2024 Olympic Games represent a unique opportunity for sports enthusiasts, as well as for those who wish to discover this universe, to participate in a major sports celebration that will last several weeks. The competition is generating both enthusiasm and apprehension among the French, and promises to be particularly spectacular.
In 2024, four sports are added to the more traditional disciplines of the Olympic Games, and Sortir à Paris offers you to know more about them, to understand everything on D-day! Every month, we present you a sport rather unknown of the general public, until the deadline, in July 2024. Today, we take a closer look at surfing, this exceptional water sport born in the islands.
Surfing is an ancestral practice that originated in Polynesia, particularly in Hawaii, as early as the 15th century. Polynesian surfers used solid wood boards, carved from native trees such as koa or wiliwili, and practiced"he'e nalu", which means"to glide on the waves". Over the centuries, surfing has spread around the world and champions have helped popularize the sport by holding demonstrations around the world. New types of boards have also helped make it more accessible to the general public.
In the 1950s and 1960s, surfing became a symbol of American youth culture and then a competitive sport with the organization of numerous championships around the world, such as the World Surf League Championship, which attracts professional surfers to many coastal regions of the world. In competition, surfers perform maneuvers and tricks on the waves, which are scored by judges based on their variety, the type of trick performed and its difficulty, as well as the surfer's speed, power and flow.
As early as the 1920s, some people were lobbying for surfing to be included in the Olympic program, like Duke Kahanamoku, a Hawaiian athlete who was a three-time Olympic freestyle champion and one of the pioneers of world surfing. However, it will be necessary to wait for the Games of Tokyo 2021, where surfing makes its first appearance as an additional sport. It will be present for the second time in Paris 2024, while Tahiti and its mythical spot of Teahupo'o have been chosen to host the events, in order toassociate the Overseas to the competition.
For Paris 2024, 48 athletes will be selected, 24 women and 24 men and a maximum of 6 people per country. As the host country, France will automatically receive two spots. 18 athletes will be qualified through the WSL CT 2023 ranking, 10 through the ISA World Surfing Games 2023 and the Pan American Games 2023 and 12 through the ISA World Surfing Games 2024. Japan and the United States have already obtained their first quotas last year, in Huntington Beach.
We must be particularly wary of the Americans, Australians, Hawaiians and Brazilians, very well placed in the rankings for several decades. On the French side, we can hope to see the excellent Johanne Defay shine, already qualified. Vahine Fierro, Pauline Ado and Tessa Thyssen also have every chance. In the men's category, Jérémy Florès and Michel Bourez have given way to the new generation, so Tim Bisso, Gatien Delahaye, Mihimana Braye and Maxime Huscenot should be counted on.
Where to surf in Paris and Ile-de-France ? The rare spots where to find waves
From the Paris area, it's difficult to surf on very big waves, the capital being a few hours away from the sea. But some spots propose you to learn how to surf, thanks to static waves ! [Read more]
