Long-board specialist Roger Casugay will lead the country’s bid to qualify a Filipino surfer in the 2024 Olympics.
Casugay, who won one of the Philippines’ two surfing gold medals in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, is being tapped to represent the country in the coming qualifiers.
United Philippine Surfing Association president Dr. Raul Canlas said this after last week’s general meeting of the world governing body, International Surfing Association.
“Si Roger ang pambato natin for now. We are working on the that. We have two, three years,” said Canlas in an online interview on People’s Conversation hosted by the Philippine Sports Commission.
Surfing won’t be held in France, unlike the rest of the events to be staged in the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It will instead be held in the South Pacific island of Tahiti, according to Canlas.
So far, a Paris 2024 delegation has already visited Tahiti as part of a technical review.
Sports officials have done an ocular visit after the International Olympic Committee confirmed the inclusion of four additional sports on the Paris 2024 program.
Surfing was included on the program, along with break dancing, skateboarding and sport climbing.
Tahiti was selected by Paris 2024 as its preferred venue for surfing competition back in 2019.
Canlas said one of their sports officials, Luke Landrigan, is spearheading the selection process for young surfers who can join the qualifiers, which also include short board events.
For now, international meets have yet to be scheduled, since many countries are still in the process of adhering to their health and safety protocols on COVID-19.