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One of the most important events in the history of surfing, the inclusion of surfing in the Olympic Games, came with what is ultimately a book of rules, criteria, exceptions, etc.: The classification criteria.

The ISA made the announcement yesterday and, after being interviewed by DUKE, who is the greatest expert on this process, ISA Executive Director Bob Fasulo shared several more updates that are detailed in the video above or in the note below.

The third place winner of the World Surfing Games is handpicked

If Huntington Beach wins the men's team event (see below) and the gold medal goes to Filipe Toledo, Toledo is by no means guaranteed a spot at Paris 2024. The extra spot Brazil gains will be handpicked by the national Olympic committee and national federation looking at who has the best medal chances at Teahupoo.

Following Filipe's example, this could be guaranteed through the CT if he is one of the top 2 Brazilians but not through the World Surfing Games.

The winning teams of the 2022 and 2024 World Surfing Games will be a men's team and a women's team

In order to implement the new rule that a country can field one more woman and one more man, the ISA will change the way it awards the world champion team: there will be a women's champion team and a men's champion team.

The men's champion team gets one more spot, and the women's champion team gets one more spot.

In this way, there may be countries that bring six surfers (the women's team and the men's team won), or that bring three men (there are two CTs and the men's team won in Huntington), to mention an example.

The 2024 champion team has a higher hierarchy than the 2022 team

If the men's or women's champion team is repeated in 2022 and 2024, the winner of 24 takes precedence and therefore, the runner-up team from 2022 is used to complete the quota.

The Pan American Games have a higher status than the 2024 World Cup

Seeking to avoid the anxieties and confusion generated by the previous criteria, which gave greater hierarchy to the last events and did not know who qualified until the penultimate day of the 2021 World Surfing Games, now the hierarchy establishes that the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games will have more weight than the 2024 World Surfing Games.

This could lead to the following situation: A Peruvian qualifies for Paris through the CT, another does so because he wins in Santiago 2023 and a Peruvian wins the World Surfing Games 2024 (which give five places to men); the latter would not qualify for Paris 2024 because the two Peruvian places would already be full.

It could happen that, if Peru wins the men's team, it will decide to bring that surfer, but there are no guarantees of this.

Only countries that have participated with eight or fewer athletes in Tokyo 2020 can apply for the universal quota.

The list is not yet available, but that is the rule: You are only eligible for this quota if you come from a country that has participated with that number of athletes and you must also demonstrate suitability to surf the wave.

The ISA will review the quality of the surfers who apply and if a surfer with the required characteristics cannot be found, the quota will go to the 2024 World Surfing Games (with the number of places available for that world championship increasing to six men and eight women).

Everything indicates that the format will be like that of the CT after the mid-year cut

The format has not yet been published, but Fasulo said in an interview that there will be only a first round with three surfers and that it will then easily move to a round of 16 surfers.

It is expected that the first round will then consist of eight heats with three surfers, with the winners going straight to the round of 16 and the losers to the elimination round with man-to-man heats.

Olympic solidarity camps: All expenses paid to Teahupoo

Surfers who qualify or are in the process of qualifying for Paris 2024 and want to gain experience will be able to travel with all expenses paid to Teahupoo to train.

To do so, you must apply through the National Olympic Committee.

This privilege is given to surfers who have no experience on the wave; members of the CT, for example, will not be able to aspire to receive it.

It will be difficult to see Paris 2024 surfing in situ

The Teahupoo area, where CT surfers or pros who go to surf there stay, always do so by renting rooms in the houses of families who live in front of the wave.

People travel by boat or jet ski to the wave, and those who want to be spectators use these two methods or perhaps a SUP to watch the event. The reality is that in the CT or when there are big swells, the spaces on all the boats are sold out and for Paris 2024 it is not known if this type of access will be allowed.

Seeing it from the sand is basically impossible.

Fasulo said in the interview that this issue is still being discussed.

Paris 2024 staff to move to Tahiti this year to organise surfing event

That's how the Olympic Games and the organizers are: To organize them properly, they will be there for two years.