Brazilian surfer rides waves with Olympic torch

The Olympic torch takes a ride on a wave in a symbolic ceremony a day after surfing became an official sport for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. Crowds gathered on a Rio beach on Thursday morning to catch a glimpse of Brazilian surfing legend Rico de Souza taking the Olympic torch out into the surf on the eve of the Games. While South America's biggest country is first and foremost a soccer powerhouse, surfing has rapidly become one of Brazil's most popular sports, with Rio providing some of the world's best urban surfing spots. Some of the world's top surfers, such as Gabriel Medina and Adriano de Souza, are Brazilian. Part of the IOC's thinking behind including surfing - as well as skateboarding, sports climbing, karate and baseball/softball- in the next summer Olympics is to attract young, urban viewers - a strategy that seems to echo in Brazil.