Photo // Sacha Specker / IBA
There’s been much debate lately, mainly fuelled by the International Surfing Association, about whether standup surfing should be included as an Olympic sport sometime in the future. In many ways they’ve got a decent case to make – snowboarding was added to the Winter Olympics in 1998, BMX was added to the summer roster in Beijing and has taken off, while wakeboarding is vying for a spot in the 2020 games along with five other sports (among them a sport called ‘Wushu’ – I don’t know what the hell that is either). So in terms of ‘extreme’ sports the International Olympic Committee is getting with the times you might say (although the fact Equestrian’s still in there makes this statement debatable). Then when you consider the fact wavepool technology is ever-improving – not every Olympic host nation will have rideable waves in the ocean – it’s not crazy to imagine wavesports being added to the Games.
Riptide emailed the IOC to see how the heck a sport gets included in the Olympics and what we could piece together from their response was that applying for inclusion is a long a boring process and includes a sport being, “assessed against a set of criteria based on seven themes and universality is one of them”. Whatever that means. But bodyboarding’s pretty universal these days. A Frenchman won our last world title, a Tahitian rider – one of a group of them killing it at present – graced our most recent magazine cover, and our next World Tour comp will be held in bodyboarding-mad Portugal. It got us thinking, what if bodyboarding became an Olympic sport? While we don’t ever actually expect to see it happen, or particularly care for that matter, we thought we’d ask a couple of our sport’s premier athletes what they thought of the idea:
It’s 2048 and bodyboarding has just been included in The Games. Good thing or bad thing? Why? What would the positives and negatives be for the sport?
BEN PLAYER: I think it would be amazing! Watching the 2012 London Olympics was awe-inspiring. To see the passion and love that goes into all of the different sports is amazing and it doesn't matter what sport it is, you get involved as a viewer so I think everyone would get involved and right behind it. I really can't see any negatives.
PIERRE LOUIS-COSTES: Great. I’ll probably be not bodyboarding anymore! Haha, nah seriously, it could happen only if a decent swimming pool with waves is created with many categories – 3ft, 6ft, 10ft, 15ft – the same way there is the 100m, the 200m, the 400m in swimming or athletics.
I think it would just be a different sport. The country with the most money will create their own swimming pool for their athlete to train and we could end up having a Chinese with a gold medal, they are pretty damn good at gymnastics, diving…Give them a board in a swimming pool, and the crazy training they have endured in other sports and they’d probably win a gold medal.
Bodyboarding is a sport started in the ocean; you have to know how to read the ocean in order to become a professional bodyboarder. If you delete all those factors, it could become more boring who knows?
Would bodyboarding in a wavepool be an accurate reflection of a rider’s ability?
BP: Yes, if the wavepool was good enough.
PLC: Having the Olympics in the swimming pool, we will have an accurate reflection of a rider’s ability…in a swimming pool. It is 1000 times harder in the ocean.
Hypothetically if you had the chance to be a part of it, would you be keen or not? Why?
BP: I would love to be able to compete in an arena like that, it's a shame I'll probably be dead by 2048. Imagine competing in an arena with that level of passion, four years of training would go into a wave that goes for 10 seconds; imagine how amazing that would be to watch?
PLC: Yes I would do it, being able to represent your country against all others nations and winning is an amazing feeling.
Finally, who do you think would win the gold medal if the sport was being held at the 2016 Rio Olympics?
BP: I'm sure I could, but you never really know who would win. Sometimes dark horses win and sometimes favourites win, that's the nature of elite sport.
PLC: Depends how the judging is, you’ll have to be perfect in your style and it’s them, the jury, who will decide what is good style. In four years maybe Jake Stone will get a gold medal in Rio.
BEN PLAYER: I think it would be amazing! Watching the 2012 London Olympics was awe-inspiring. To see the passion and love that goes into all of the different sports is amazing and it doesn't matter what sport it is, you get involved as a viewer so I think everyone would get involved and right behind it. I really can't see any negatives.
PIERRE LOUIS-COSTES: Great. I’ll probably be not bodyboarding anymore! Haha, nah seriously, it could happen only if a decent swimming pool with waves is created with many categories – 3ft, 6ft, 10ft, 15ft – the same way there is the 100m, the 200m, the 400m in swimming or athletics.
I think it would just be a different sport. The country with the most money will create their own swimming pool for their athlete to train and we could end up having a Chinese with a gold medal, they are pretty damn good at gymnastics, diving…Give them a board in a swimming pool, and the crazy training they have endured in other sports and they’d probably win a gold medal.
Bodyboarding is a sport started in the ocean; you have to know how to read the ocean in order to become a professional bodyboarder. If you delete all those factors, it could become more boring who knows?
Would bodyboarding in a wavepool be an accurate reflection of a rider’s ability?
BP: Yes, if the wavepool was good enough.
PLC: Having the Olympics in the swimming pool, we will have an accurate reflection of a rider’s ability…in a swimming pool. It is 1000 times harder in the ocean.
Hypothetically if you had the chance to be a part of it, would you be keen or not? Why?
BP: I would love to be able to compete in an arena like that, it's a shame I'll probably be dead by 2048. Imagine competing in an arena with that level of passion, four years of training would go into a wave that goes for 10 seconds; imagine how amazing that would be to watch?
PLC: Yes I would do it, being able to represent your country against all others nations and winning is an amazing feeling.
Finally, who do you think would win the gold medal if the sport was being held at the 2016 Rio Olympics?
BP: I'm sure I could, but you never really know who would win. Sometimes dark horses win and sometimes favourites win, that's the nature of elite sport.
PLC: Depends how the judging is, you’ll have to be perfect in your style and it’s them, the jury, who will decide what is good style. In four years maybe Jake Stone will get a gold medal in Rio.
