Tokyo (AFP)

There is no question of imitating the rapid passage of karate, sent back after the Tokyo Olympics to the oblivion of the Olympics: surfing, skateboarding and climbing have just discovered the Games that they are already planning towards those in Paris.

And they have the blessing of the IOC, whose boss Thomas Bach praised Friday these sports "of the future", allowing "to go where people are, in urban centers", while rejuvenating the audience of the Olympics.

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Surf: from chop to typhoon

From the Olympic debut of surfing in Ichinomaya, in male and female "shortboard", we not only remember the consecration of the American Carissa Moore and the Brazilian Italo Ferreira, already overwhelmed with success in the professional world.

The American Carissa Moore deeply moved after winning the first Olympic gold in women's surfing in Chiba, July 27, 2021 Yuki IWAMURA AFP / Archives

By managing to agree to favor a natural site, magnified by the powerful and aerial figures of the 40 competitors, the surf authorities have also made this event one of the showcases of the host country.

Where most disciplines take place in sublime but standardized enclosures, surfing offered a condensed version of the Japanese coast, passing in a few days from a calm sea to the swell raised by a tropical storm.

The Japanese Momiji Nishiya is the first Olympic skateboard medalist, crowned in Tokyo, July 26, 2021 Lionel BONAVENTURE AFP / Archives

And Paris-2024 will take Olympic surfing to another dimension: the event will launch its boards on one of the most beautiful waves in the world, Teahupo'o, in Tahiti.

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Skateboarding: teens in power

If skateboarding and its teens have breathed fresh air in Tokyo and boosted TV audiences, especially in Brazil, the competition left a mixed impression.

Many crashes - especially in the "street" event - lack of pace, disappointing superstars like Nyjah Huston and Leticia Bufoni, a slightly dull gray concrete bowl: the format and its results were not fully convincing.

Unlike climbers, happy and intimidated to join in the Olympic celebration, many skateboarders, especially younger ones, have repeated that they came to have fun with friends and have often downplayed the importance of the Games.

Brazilian teenagers Rayssa Leal (silver), Japanese Momiji Nishiya (gold) and Funa Nakayama (bronze) on the skateboard podium at the Tokyo Games, July 26, 2021 Lionel BONAVENTURE AFP / Archives

Still, this arrival at the Olympics aroused a lot of enthusiasm, especially among the Japanese (5 medals) and the Brazilians (3 medals), whose journalists came in large numbers to the Ariake site.

In Brazil, which has 8.5 million skaters, the "street" event achieved the fifth best audience in the first week, thanks in particular to "the little fairy" Rayssa Leal, in silver at 13, from 600,000 followers on Instagram at 6.6 million.

Most of the competitors hope that the Olympic advent of skateboarding will spark vocations.

"I hope I will inspire a few girls," said Briton Sky Brown, 13 and bronze medalist in "park".

The young Frenchwoman Madeleine Larcheron, 15, is waiting for the construction of "bigger structures" and promises to "make things happen".

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Climbing: successful big gap

The culmination of decades of evolution, from the rocks of Fontainebleau to the city walls, the arrival of climbing at the Games was accompanied by a challenge: to condense the diversity of practices into a single event.

On the show side, the "combination" of speed, bouldering and difficulty has kept its promises, unfolding a rich palette of gestures and confronting the silversmiths of the cliffs and acrobats of resin.

Frenchman Mickael Mawem in the final of climbing like Spiderman at the Tokyo Games, August 5, 2021 Mohd RASFAN POOL / AFP

"When we got there, we entered another world. Now we will continue to do the show, show that our sport is insane and that it remains (at the Olympics) for 50 years, 100 years", enthused the French Mickaël Mawem (5th), also hoping that the young climbers "live" more easily than his generation.

But when it came time to decide between sprinters, voltigeurs and technicians, the method of calculation retained - unmatched at the Games - had turned illegible, upsetting the men's standings until the last second.

However, he was living his last hours: in Paris, climbing will have two events, speed on the one hand and a combined block-difficulty on the other.

© 2021 AFP