Surfing was poised for a monumental year in 2020 with its arrival on the Olympic stage. But the pandemic has not only caused a postponement of the Tokyo Games, it has now led the sport’s governing body, the World Surf League, to cancel the World Championship Tour this year and to revamp the next tour schedule. The 2021 tour will begin later this year, an early start designed to provide leeway in case the pandemic worsens and causes schedule changes later in the calendar. The 2020 championship tour, which had been scheduled to begin in March with the Corona Open Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, never got off the ground because of the pandemic. If surfing — a sport that takes place outside, with physically distant competitors — couldn’t pull off competition safely, was there hope for any other sport?

Source: International New York Times July 17, 2020 12:56 UTC