2023 ISA World Surfing Games: Day 6 results, highlights, and livestream from the Olympic qualifier event
Five tickets to Paris 2024, a spectacle of massive airs and a heroic turn from a surfer with a dislocated shoulder were the highlights on the sixth day of competition at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games. Watch the rest of the action live on Olympics.com and check back for the reactions of the next three Tahiti-bound surfers.
Surfing
Five tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were handed out at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games as the competition moved closer to the decisive rounds.
South Africa’s Jordy Smith and Sarah Baum qualified as the top-ranked male and female athletes from Africa, while New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand and Saffi Vette took the spots for Oceania. Japan’s Shino Matsuda earned the women’s quota for Asia.
Smith, Baum, Vette and Matsuda will be making their Olympic debut when the surfing competition takes place in Teahupo’o, Tahiti next year. Stairmand previously competed at Tokyo 2020.
A total of eight quotas will be allocated based on the results of the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games, split between athletes from four continents – Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
Olympics.com caught the moment when the first five athletes received their tickets to Paris 2024 and was also on hand for the dramatic repechage action in Surf City El Salvador.
Watch the live stream from the upcoming heats and get the first reactions from the athletes on Olympics.com.
Tahiti-bound: South Africa, New Zealand, Japan
Smith and Baum were the first to receive their tickets through the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.
Smith previously qualified for Tokyo 2020 but got injured a month before the Games and was not able to compete, while Baum missed out on qualification and watched her childhood training partner Bianca Buitendag take the silver instead.
“I grew up surfing with Bianca. We're always neck and neck in each event and back then, we always thought that her and I would be on this on the Championship Tour and maybe at the Olympics at the same time,” Baum told Olympics.com. “I still feel like I deserve that.”
Billy Stairmand won the men’s Oceania spot, beating out World Championship Tour surfers, Ethan Ewing and Ryan Callinan.
“Every time I look at it, it’s pretty surreal. I qualified for Tokyo four years ago and that was pretty crazy and this is the exact same feeling,” he told Olympics.com while holding his ticket. “I’ve never been to Tahiti as well before so I’m really looking forward to that and pushing my surfing to another level and charging some big waves hopefully.”
Fight for world titles continues
As celebrations erupted among the South Africa, Japan and New Zealand teams, the battle for the three remaining quotas and world titles heated up in El Salvador.
The conditions got tricky on Day 6 as the wind picked up, making the waves bumpier and giving an advantage to the surfers with the best aerial skills.
Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons was among those fighting the elements as she advanced to the women’s fifth round.
“There’s so much swell, it’s been pumping every day,” Fitzgibbons told Olympics.com. “There’s a little wind chatter today so you got to be really stable not to catch any rails, but it’s the ultimate pressure test. Everyone’s such good surfers and just getting the 20 minute’s ride is so clutch and it gets the adrenaline going.”
Other surfers fared worse against the growing swell with several top names leaving the competition, including Brazil’s Filipe Toledo, USA’s John John Florence, Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti, and France’s Maxime Huscenot.
Earlier in the day Olympic champion Carissa Moore and world No.4 Caroline Marks withdrew from the competition ahead of their heats.
Girls just want to have fun: Young talent puts on a show
As veteran surfers left the competition, the emerging stars of the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games stepped up to take the spotlight.
Dutch teenager Tiara van der Huls has been one of the toughest competitors at the World Surfing Games so far. Not that you’d guess it from watching her enter the water.
The 16-year-old was singing Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls just want to have fun” as she started her fourth-round heat.
“I’m having a lot of fun. I’m just singing songs and trying to stay calm and trying to keep the rhythm going,” van der Huls told Olympics.com after winning her second consecutive heat. “I sing songs in the water because if not, I get nervous, and it just reminds me that surfing, being out there, you’re competing against yourself, not really comparing yourself to the other surfers.”
Van der Huls will face Fitzgibbons and France’s Vahine Fierro in the next round, which also happen to be some of the surfers she grew up admiring.
“Almost everyone that’s still in the main round, I look up to. It’s really special. I don’t really know what’s happening right now and I’m trying to go heat by heat and have fun every heat,” van der Huls said. “It doesn’t really matter if I make the heat. It’ll be amazing if I do, but I just want to show some good waves.”
The other youngsters joining the Dutch teen in the fourth round include Germany’s junior world champion Rachel Presti and Nicaragua’s Candelaria Resano, who is known for her talent on big waves.
Caught our eye: Carlos Munoz dislocates shoulder, wins heat
It was clear that something was wrong when Costa Rica's Carlos Munoz emerged from the foam after landing a massive air in the men’s repechage round.
The surfer was clutching a dislocated right shoulder, but undaunted, he quickly snapped it back in while still riding his surfboard.
Metres away from shore, Munoz then decided to continue with the competition and caught another wave with seconds until the buzzer to finish the heat with a winning total.
Looking ahead: Three tickets remain
The competition will advance to the quarter-finals stage with two heats in the main round for men and women, as well as three repechage rounds.
Brazil has a menacing presence with Gabriel Medina and Tatiana Weston-Webb in the main rounds and world No.2 Joao Chianca fighting his way up from the repechages. But watch out for Australia and Mexico as they try to stop the Brazilian advance while also battling the elements.
"I think the waves are going to get bigger tomorrow so it'll probably turn into a wave-catching contest," Mexico's Sebastian Hernandez told Olympics.com after getting a 9.0 wave score and tying with Canada's Levi Young for the top-scoring wave in the men's competition. "It'll be whoever catches the best waves and doesn't fall because it's going to be pretty hectic out there."
The final three Paris 2024 quotas could also be decided on Day 7.
Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi and Reo Inaba, as well as Indonesia’s Rio Waida are still fighting for the men's spot for Asia.
Israel’s Uri Uziel is in a solid position to get the European slot for men, but four more surfers remain in contention. The picture is less clear for the European women with six athletes still able to take the spot.