Born on October 1, 1997, K. Igarashi is a professional surfer of Japanese ancestry who has been competing internationally since 2012. He was the youngest surfer to ever compete on the WSL Championship Tour (CT), and he finished 2016 with more Round One victories than anyone else.
Arunner-up finish at the Pipeline event, and a 20th place overall standing. One of his best performances ever came in the 2019 WSL CT. When he won the Corona Bali Protected event and finished in sixth place overall.
K. Igarashi Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
In the men’s final, which was moved up from later in the week because of the impending typhoon, K. Igarashi lost to the more experienced. And powerful Brazilian Italo Ferreira and came away with silver instead of gold. Despite defeating world number one Gabriel Medina in the semi-finals.
K. Igarashi was defeated by current world champion Ferreira in the final at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, where Ferreira scored 15.14 to K. Igarashi 6.60. As part of the games’ effort to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the beach in Chiba Prefecture, one of the closest surf spots to Tokyo, is off-limits to spectators.
The 23-year-old K. Igarashi, who was born in the United States to Japanese immigrant parents, had a hard time finding a good wave in the semifinals of the medal event. His two best rides combined for a total of only 3 points.
Tokyo 2020: The First-Ever Olympic Surfing Heat Draw
The surfing world governing body has announced the first round heat seedings and pairings for both men and women. With a total of 20 men and 20 women competing, the field will be gradually narrowed over the course of six rounds of heats.
Leading up to the discussion of gold, silver, and bronze medals in surfing’s first Olympic appearance. The first round does not feature elimination. A total of twenty-five surfers were divided into five heats of four, with the top two finishers in each heat advancing to the next round.
There will be two heats of five competitors each, and the bottom two surfers will have to compete in this first elimination round. Only the top three finishers in each heat advance to the next round of the Olympic surfing competition.
The third round is an elimination round with eight heats of two surfers each; only the surfer who finishes first in their heat advances to the quarterfinals.
Conclusion
He became Japan’s first official representative in the World Surf League Championship Tour in 2016, and the youngest rookie to ever compete in the WSL. In 2017 and 2018, he took first place at the Vans U.S. Open WSL event in his hometown of Huntington Beach, but he was quickly eliminated in 2019.
In 2019, K. Igarashi won the Corona Bali Protected event in Indonesia, moving him up to sixth place on the overall WSL CT rankings.
