Surfing signs its dream postcard in Tahiti and consolidates itself in the Games

Surfing is here to stay at the Olympic Games, and in Tahiti it has put its best arguments as a discipline to rest, finally putting to rest its lackluster debut at Tokyo 2020. The chosen setting, the famous Teahupo’o wave, the feared “wall of skulls”, has left the postcard dreamed of by the organisers throughout a week and a half of competition. Crystal-clear waters, powerful waves and an admirable performance by the athletes, the main protagonists. The final day, last night, crowned two new young Olympic champions: Kauli Vaast, a prophet in her homeland, and Caroline Marks, a true American prodigy. Both are 22 years old and have their best days surfing waves ahead of them.

Two magnificent barrels sealed their fate in the turquoise waters above the shallow coral, although the ocean took a while to give its power and beauty to the competitors on a final day that went from less to more, both in terms of the competitive level and the quality of the waves. It is a script that illustrates very well the intrinsic nature of a sport that requires the collaboration of the sea. Vaast, born in neighbouring Vairao, unleashed the madness of all French Polynesia, an overseas community made up of 121 islands, with his 9.5 to open the men’s final, the sixth best wave of the entire competition.

“The manna was with me, it’s something very much ours, the spirit and the energy that all the Polynesians have given me, I could feel it,” celebrated the winner. He needed little more in a round for gold in which three waves were caught, one more for him and one for the silver medallist, the Australian Jack Robinson. The Brazilian Gabriel Medina, protagonist of one of the iconic images of Paris 2024 and a benchmark for the discipline, took the bronze that had barely escaped him in the previous Olympic event. “This has been different, it has reached the country much more,” commented Medina after taking the bronze. “We have had great waves in this championship. It has been crazy for followers, for messages. That photo became iconic. I think that surfing has won, you know? The whole world has been watching us and paying attention to our sport,” he added, referring to the snapshot that has gone around the world.

The women were the ones who put the finishing touches to the competition, putting the final slam on the controversy that arose during the nomination of the venue. Yes, the Teahupo’o wave is fearsome and dangerous, but it was never beyond the reach of the excellent level of female surfers, as some suggested. Marks, World Surf League (WSL) world circuit champion in 2023, adds Olympic gold to her incredible list of achievements. A professional since the age of 15, when she became the youngest surfer to enter the world’s top division, she has broken all barriers of precocity. In the final, she beat the more experienced Tatiana Weston-Webb, who fell just short of gold with a judges’ decision that came with time running out. The result was extremely tight, 10.50 to 10.33. The Brazilian, another tube specialist, was the executioner of the Spanish Nadia Erostarbe, fifth after having reached the quarter-finals and having signed the fifth best wave of the event at its conclusion.

The women’s bronze went to Frenchwoman Johanne Defay, who rounded off the day for the local delegation. Hers and Vaast’s are the first medals for European surfers in a discipline traditionally dominated by the United States and, more recently, by Brazil. At the competition in Teahupo’o, the first Olympic champion, also American Carissa Moore – five-time world circuit champion – announced her definitive retirement from professional surfing. Her departure, and the also imminent departure of Kelly Slater, the great legend of the discipline and 11-time WSL circuit champion, come at an unbeatable time for the sport. Never has surfing had so many eyes on it, and the spectacle has lived up to expectations.

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