Surfing is California's official state sport and Canadian para surfer Victoria Feige wants Los Angeles to prove it in 2028. (Full Paris Paralympics Coverage | More Sports News)
The five-time women's world champion is at the forefront of a lobby to get her sport included in the 2028 Paralympics.
LA's organizing committee has said it would not propose para surfing as a new sport for the event because of “cost and complexity.”
That dumbfounded Feige. California has hosted every world para surfing championship since the first in 2015.
“I was devastated,” Feige said. “I have been hearing about the movement toward the Paralympics for para surfing since 2018.
“I won my first world title and I was urine-tested right after according to WADA anti-doping regulations. It felt important, progressive and we had this momentum.”
There are nine para surf classifications encompassing missing limbs, prosthetics, paralysis and visual impairment.
The 39-year-old Feige competes in the women's kneeling classification. She mistimed a jump while snowboarding in Colorado at age 18, fractured vertebrae in her spine and was paralyzed below the waist.
“I have been so lucky and grateful to be able to surf again and find a community and compete for my country and reach the highest levels and push my sport forward in ways I never considered,” Feige said. “While I am in still sort of the prime of my life, I would like to help my sport reach this global stage and I would love to compete for Canada and win the gold for Canada.”
The International Surfing Association has turned its attention to Brisbane in 2032, but Feige isn't giving up on 2028.
A "Save Paralympic Surfing L.A. 2028" petition started by para surfer Jack Bogle has almost 27,000 signatures.
Feige has appeared in videos with surfing star Kelly Slater and musician Jack Johnson, who have endorsed para surfing for Paralympic inclusion.
She's planning a California outdoor wave pool event following November's world championship “as a proof of concept to show that para surfing can be held in LA in 2028,” Feige said.
“It's like a football field and a big hydraulic press that creates a surfable wave on demand,” Feige explained. “It's standardized and they've had surfing pro level competitions there before. I'm wondering if it's an option to make it more cost-effective and logistically easy to incorporate it into the Games.”
Canadian wheelchair rugby co-captain Trevor Hirschfield, who competed in his fifth Paralympics in Paris, gave para surfing a try in 2020 because he wanted an outdoor sport to pursue during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A year later, he was on a board at the world championship in Pismo Beach, California, in the prone 2 division, in which athletes require assistance to catch a wave and get on a board safely.
“I've been to Paralympics and world championships before and I thought the world para surf championships were amazing,” Hirschfield said. “California, LA hosting the Games and not picking up para surfing is a big miss on their part.”
