At midnight yesterday, Paris 2024 closed its call for applications for venues wishing to host the surfing competitions at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The following five venues (listed in alphabetical order) have officially applied:
- Biarritz
- Community of municipalities of Le Pays Bigouden Sud (La Torche)
- Department of Les Landes (Capbreton, Hossegor and Seignosse)
- Lacanau/Greater Bordeaux
- French Polynesia

Natural venues for surfing competitions
The choice of the surfing venue should tie in with Paris 2024’s vision of a sustainable and responsible Games and will not involve the construction of a permanent venue. Paris 2024 will choose a venue offering natural waves, as France boasts a number of well-known surfing spots on its Atlantic coast and in its overseas territories.

Paris 2024 will select a venue that offers athletes ideal conditions in which to compete and all necessary related services. The key criteria identified by Paris 2024 will include the venue’s experience in hosting surfing competitions, weather conditions, the quality of the body of water, and facilities for hosting athletes and spectators. The chosen venue should also propose a public celebration of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, contribute to the development of surfing, and manage the environmental impact involved in hosting the competitions.

What comes next?
Paris 2024 will now visit the five candidate venues over the summer, when weather and sea conditions are likely to be similar to those the athletes will encounter in summer 2024. The sites will then have until 30 September 2019 to submit a complete application file.

The surfing competitions venue should be named in the first half of 2020, subject to the IOC giving its final approval, in December 2020, to surfing’s inclusion as a new sport on the Paris 2024 Games programme.

Should surfing be added to the programme, it will comprise both a women’s shortboard and a men’s shortboard event, each contested by 24 athletes. This equal split between genders will apply to all four additional sports proposed by Paris 2024 (breaking, sport climbing, skateboarding and surfing) and approved by the IOC Session on 25 June.