In the photo above, Reñaca: Most likely box for the surfing event of the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, on a dream day. Photo: Pablo Jiménez 

A new edition of SportAccord, the world's largest sports convention, is taking place in Bangkok, Thailand. It is attended by everyone who is someone in the world of sports, from the leader of a national federation of a small country to the president of the International Olympic Committee.

One of the novelties that the stand of the Pan American Sports Organization, now called Panam Sports, had was that surfboards were used for the presentation of the Pan American Games of Lima 2019 and Santiago 2023 and even the logo of the federation itself. In addition, the Lima stand has a photo of Sofía Mulanovich doing off the lip from the backside.

It is no small feat that all the sports included in the Pan American Games have been displaced and that surfing has been chosen to be included.

“Surfing doesn’t stop!” exclaimed the president of the Pan American Surfing Association, Karín Sierralta, in a Facebook post accompanied by a photo with the aforementioned boards. The authority, who also works in the organization of Lima 2019 and is vice president of the ISA, explained to DUKE: “By putting the boards out, Chile and ODEPA, whose president is Chilean, are not only supporting surfing, but are using it as a marketing tool because they understand that this sport is an attractive sport, that has many followers and that is very well accepted in the Olympic world. That is why I take the liberty of saying that surfing is here to stay and we will work hard and in an ideal way for this to happen.”

Asked about the beach where the surfing test will take place in 2023, Sierralta said that according to what he was informed, it will be Reñaca. The iconic beach that is the center of the best of the Chilean summer jet set, does not have the best waves (speaking in Chilean terms, of course); the rest of the country's gigantic coast has dream conditions for surfing.

In reference to this, the president of the Chilean Surf Federation, Paula Muñoz, told DUKE: “It is clear that, Due to the connectivity and proximity to sports activities in Santiago, it will most likely be Reñaca since other sports are also brought to Viña.”

“Not being the best wave in Chile, it will most likely be here. If it were up to me, I would happily take an event of this nature to the waves of Iquique, Pichilemu or Cobquecura, which have incredible waves, but it will depend on the Chilean Olympic Committee and the regional authorities.”.

In view of the financial injection that the arrival of surfing at the Pan American and Olympic Games brought to the national federations, the guarantee that in 2023 Santiago will be surfing guarantees more government money going to the surfing federations, something that has proven to be very positive.