(ATR) Tetsuhiko Endosays that adding the sport to the 2020 Olympic Program would be bad for both surfing and the Olympics.
Endo, editor of the online publication Surf, weighed the pros and cons of including surfing in the 2020 Tokyo Gamesin an op-ed on Wednesday.
"Making surfing an Olympic sport would be a mistake, and not just because The Olympics is a tired institution riddled with cynical marketing and faux-nationalism," Endo wrote.
"Even if it really were a pageant that united the world in sporting excellence, surfing could simply never work within its rigid competitive paradigm."
Tokyo 2020 has proposed 18 additional events in five sports for inclusion at the Olympics: baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sports climbing and surfing.
The additional events are the biggest ever for an Olympics of the recent era. The 18 events would result in an extra 474 athletes taking part in the Tokyo Games, joining the program of 28 sports.
L.A. Olympic Bid in the News
Speaking at a summit in Los Angeles on Monday, L.A. 2024 chair Casey Wasserman said that the Olympic Games could "elevate the city almost unlike anything else."
Variety Magazine editor Ted Johnson says Wasserman also "defended the push to secure the Games even as the region faces pressing problems with homelessness and education."
Wasserman added, "Our mayor likes to talk about how this is the time for L.A. to become one of the three or four great cities in the world, and I think the summer Olympic Games in 2024 has a tremendous opportunity to do that."
Is L.A.'s current state of readiness to prevent a terror attack a trump card in its bid for the 2024 Games?
Fox News reporter Hollie McKay explores that question.
Other cities in the running for the 2024 Games are Budapest, Hamburg, Paris, and Rome.
The IOC votes on the host city at the 2017 Session in Lima, Peru.
In Other News
One of the most amazing leaps in Olympic history is immortalized in a photo with an equally amazing backstory.
Tony Duffy, who photographed Bob Beamon's iconic long jump the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, is profiled by Deadspin columnist David Davis.
Alyssa Roenigk, senior writer forESPN The Magazine, spotlights Olympic freeskier Gus Kentworthy's next bold move -- coming out of the closet.
Compiled byNicole Bennett
Home page and top photo credit: Getty Images
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