2023 ISA World Surfing Games: Day 7 results, highlights, and livestream from the Olympic qualifier event
France’s Vahine Fierro clinched the Paris 2024 women’s quota for Europe as the competition narrowed to the final 16 athletes. Watch the live stream of Day 8 on Olympics.com to see new world champions crowned and two more Olympic tickets handed out.
Surfing
Teahupo’o was always a special place for Tahiti native Vahine Fierro. Next year it could become even more so as the French surfer will have a chance to compete for Olympic gold on the famous wave.
Fierro qualified to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games by advancing to the women’s semi-finals at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.
She was second only to teammate Johanne Defay. Since Defay has already secured her Paris 2024 spot in April through the World Championship Tour, the quota for the top-ranked female surfer from Europe passed to Fierro.
“I’m feeling so excited to be an Olympian for the first time at home. I couldn’t have asked for better," Fierro said after receiving her ticket. "Hard work does pay off at some point and this point right now is the best ever and I’m really looking forward to putting the time in over there and figuring out how I can win that gold medal.”
A total of eight qualification spots are up for grabs in El Salvador, to be split among athletes from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Five tickets were given out over the previous competition day and now only two spots remain.
The top European male surfer quota will be decided between France’s Kauli Vaast and Spain’s Gonzalo Gutierrez, while Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi and Reo Inaba will contest the men’s quota for Asia.
All of the action from the final day of the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games will be streamed live on Olympics.com.
2023 ISA World Surfing Games: Swell, sweat and tears
A growing swell made conditions tougher on Day 7 with some of the most experienced surfers struggling to catch a second wave.
The heat times were increased by five minutes to 25 for the main round and 20 for the repechages to give athletes time to paddle back against the powerful current, while surfers swapped for bigger boards with sharper rails to hold onto the waves.
“It gives me a lot of confidence knowing that my body can handle four heats in pumping surf because this is not easy. It definitely takes a toll on our bodies," Canada's Cody Young told Olympics.com after advancing through three repechage rounds in tough conditions.
While athlets like Young, Vaast and Mexico's Alan Cleland fared stunningly against the elements, some Olympic hopefuls like Indonesia’s Rio Waida saw their Tahiti dreams dashed by the strong waves.
“I wish I had a better start. I was ready to compete, but it’s very big and (you have) to be really on-point to get a good score and get the right wave,” Waida told Olympics.com. “I kind of missed the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics at this event, so I’m bummed but it’s OK. I learned a lesson about my mistakes and then I will move forward and get better.”
Japan's Igarashi and Inaba are still in the hunt for the men’s quota for Asia, while Waida will need to make the Top 10 on the World Championship Tour to secure his quota this year.
“Last time in Tokyo (2020) it was a very good experience. It made me who I am today. Since Tokyo, I grew up a lot, I surf better and I’m a better person,” Waida said. “I still have a lot to grow in, but Paris, I really want to go. I’ve never been to Tahiti so it would be very fun and I will work harder to get that spot.”
Germany’s Noah Klapp and the Netherlands’ Tiara van der Huls were also among the athletes struggling against the powerful waves.
Klapp lost her fifth-round heat despite having the top single wave score among the other competitors because she could not catch a good second wave, while the Dutch teenage sensation only caught one, 3.60-scoring wave before getting sent to the repechages where she was then eliminated.
From El Salvador to Chile: Five athletes clinch Santiago 2023 quotas
While athletes from Asia and Europe were fighting for the three remaining Olympic quotas, surfers from the Americas also had ambitions beyond winning world titles in El Salvador.
Ten athletes qualified to the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games through their performances at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.
On the women's side, they are Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb, Canada’s Erin Brooks, Costa Rica’s Leilani Mcgonagle, and Peru’s Daniella Rosas and Sol Aguirre. Among the men there are Mexico’s Alan Cleland and Sebastian Hernandez, Canada’s Cody Young, and Peru’s Miguel Tudela and Lucca Mesinas.
Santiago 2023 is an Olympic qualifier where one male and one female surfer from the Americas will receive tickets to Paris 2024.
“I’m really excited to qualify for Pan American Games, especially as a whole team with so many other sports that happen there,” Weston-Webb told Olympics.com.
“The conditions got rougher today," she added. "The swell picked up and then the wind came on so it made it really difficult to find the right sections and the right waves and when the sets come, you get a lot of waves in the head and that’s just pure exhaustion. I felt like I managed pretty well.”
Daniela Rosas had to fight even harder to qualify for Santiago 2023. The Peruvian surfer broke a fin on her surfboard and had to go back to shore mid-heat to switch boards.
The effort paid off and Rosas looked poised to advance, but three seconds before the buzzer Canada’s Erin Brooks made a strong move that dropped Rosas below the cut-off line.
Looking ahead: World champions to be decided
Even with Rosas out, Peru will have a strong presence on the final day of competition with three athletes in contention for world titles.
Lucca Mesinas and Miguel Tudela have looked solid over the past seven days and will be contesting for medals from the men’s main round.
The Peruvians will have to get past definding champion Igarashi and Mexico’s Alan Cleland first, but their chances have increased since South Africa’s Jordy Smith and Brazil’s Gabriel Medina and Joao Chianca withdrew from the competition earlier in the day.
On the women’s side Sol Aguirre will fly the Peruvian flag as she tries to get out of the repechages against Australian and Canadian teenagers. If she does, Aguirre could face France’s Fierro and Defay, Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons or Tatiana Weston-Webb in the final.