
After a year delay due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Tokyo Olympics started at the end of July. In this edition, three new modalities debuted in the biggest competition in the world: 3x3 basketball, surfing and skateboarding. Bringing medals to countries such as Japan, United States, Brazil, Australia, Russia, Serbia, China and Latvia, and involving a large number of athletes and nations, these sports carry urban culture in their movements and histories and are an important part of relationships in the city.
If, on the one hand, surfing has its origins in Hawaii and Polynesia, where the sport was practiced by different social classes and by men and women, on the other hand, its spread around the world during the 20th century, after colonization and a period of prohibition, were central to 1960s popular and baby boomer culture.
