This editorial ran in the September 1992 issue of Surfing. It has been slightly edited and shortened.

Remember when three-time world champion Tommy Curren captured the gold medal for the United States at the Olympic Games in 1984? Of course you don’t remember that, because it didn’t happen. Surfing, as you probably know, is not a medal sport in the Summer Olympics. It isn’t even an exhibition sport. And the general consensus is that surfing has about as much chance of making it into the Olympic Games in the near future as Nirvana has of a hit on the easy-listening charts.

Michele Verdier, the director of information for the International Olympic Committee (IOC), says surfing simply does not meet the requirements needed to achieve Olympic status. In order to be granted medal status in the Summer Games, she says, a sport must be practiced competitively by men in 75 countries on four continents, and/or by women in 40 countries on three continents. Surfing isn’t—or so she says. A sport also must have a recognized and established international organizing group or groups. Surfing doesn’t—or so she says.

“There have been some efforts before to get surfing into the Olympics, most recently in 1984, but it just does not meet all the requirements,” says Verdier.

“The IOC is currently reviewing all sports in the Olympic Games, and there are going to be some changes. Some sports could be dropped, others added. But I don’t believe surfing has the international organization or the mobilization to make it as a medal sport in the Games."

Graham Cassidy, executive director of the Association of Surfing Professionals, begs to differ. He suggests that Verdier and the IOC look again at the numbers. “Surfing is indeed a worldwide sport, we do have an international federation, and men and women practice it and compete all over the world,” says Cassidy. “There are approximately nine million surfers worldwide now, and at least 56 countries have surfing competitions.”

There are several sports in the Olympic Games that are less popular than surfing, Cassidy notes. “Now, I don’t want to put down any other sports, because they all have their place, but surfing is here, it belongs,” he says. “Unfortunately, there still seems to be a stereotype or a stigma among some against postmodern sports like surfing, and against surfers."

Cassidy is one of the leaders of a movement to get surfing into the Summer Games by the year 2000. The movement’s success, he says, hinges on whether or not Sydney, Australia, gets the bid to host the Olympics that year. “If Sydney gets it, and we think it very well might, there’s a more-than-decent chance that surfing will be a part of the Olympics,” Cassidy says. “It would be good recognition for the sport. It would be great to see the competition in the Olympics, to see the world’s best surfers going for the medals.”

But there are those who don’t want to see surfers go for the gold. Alan Atkins, an administrator for both the amateur International Surfing and Australian Surfing associations, isn’t convinced that surfing in the Games is good. “The recognition would be good, but there are problems,” he says, speaking on his own behalf. “First, it would probably be very political and only allow one male and one female from each country.”

Besides, Atkins says, the ASA gets most of its funding from the Australian government. If surfing became an Olympic sport, a lot of that money would be cut off and spread too thin, he suggests.

“Right now,” Atkins says, “I think surfing is doing a very good job promoting itself. It’s a great sport, there are international competitions, and people who want to surf, surf. Surfing doesn’t need the Olympics.”

"WHY NOT THE OLYMPICS?" BY JAMIE RENO (1992)

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