Surfing made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Summer Olympics in 2020.
The surfing events were held at Tsurigasaki Beach in Chiba Prefecture, east of Tokyo. Although the Games were officially called the 2020 Olympics, they took place in 2021 after the COVID-19 pandemic caused a one-year postponement.
Both men’s and women’s shortboard competitions were contested. The format brought surfing’s wave-selection, priority, and heat-scoring systems to the Olympic program for the first time.
The postponement sometimes causes confusion between the Olympic year and the event year. Tokyo 2020 remains the official edition, even though competition occurred in 2021.