Medina's victory took Brazil to the top of the men's team rankings and opened a door for him to compete at the Paris 2024 Olympics, while Tatiana Weston-Webb's silver medal secured the country an extra quota spot in the women's competition.
At the start of the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, Gabriel Medina promised that he would give “100 per cent” to winning the competition.
On Sunday, 3 March, after nine days and eight undefeated heats, he proved that he meant it.
Medina’s dominant run and final victory in Arecibo, Puerto Rico not only added a World Surfing Games title to the surfer’s ample resume, which already includes three world titles, but also secured Brazil an extra, third men’s quota for the 2024 Olympic Games*.
Since Medina was not able to obtain an Olympic quota through earlier events, the team quota was essential to keep his dreams of competing at a second Olympic Games alive.
“I feel amazing,” Medina told Olympics.com after making his way on shore through a yellow whirlwind of cheering teammates. “That was fun. I knew I needed to win. That was my focus here and I had a blast. All these days were very fun and enjoyable. I’m just thankful for this.”
Thirty minutes later Brazil was in celebration mode again as Tatiana Weston-Webb finished second to Sally Fitzgibbons in the women’s final, thus putting her team at the top of the women’s team ranking.
Brazil’s triple success at 2024 ISA World Surfing Games – in the men’s and women’s team rankings, as well as the overall team ranking – ensured that it will be the only National Olympic Committee at the upcoming Olympics with six surfing quotas.
“It means the world. It shows how much we care, not just for our individual selves, but for our team,” Weston-Webb told Olympics.com after the final. “We always show up for each other’s heats. We know how fortunate it is to have this third spot, male and female side, and it’s just really awesome.
“My team makes me better every day, so I’m just really grateful to be a part of it.”
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
For women’s champion Fitzgibbons, the win in Puerto Rico marked her career’s fourth World Surfing Games title. The Australian Championship Tour surfer won her first in 2008.
This time the victory was mixed with heartbreak as she narrowly missed on taking Australia into the lead of the women’s team ranking. Like Medina, Fitzgibbons needed the team quota to open a door to the Paris 2024 Olympics, but Weston-Webb’s second place ensured that Brazil finished 35 points ahead of Australia.
Despite missing out on Paris 2024, Fitzgibbons was overjoyed with her newest medal.
“I’m just over the moon. This is everything why I put my jersey on still after 20 years,” she told Olympics.com. “Doing ISA competition, I still remember that first one, and I am here standing now with the same amount of joy and excitement.”
From his first heats in Puerto Rico, Medina spared no effort to show that he is out to dominate the field.
As the competition wrapped up, he boasted two of the highest-scoring waves among the men and three of the highest-scoring heat totals, which included the 16.40 points he earned in the final.
After warming up with a 7.50-scoring wave in the morning’s round 7 heat, Medina went back to the waters for the win.
His main opponent, France’s Kauli Vaast, launched an attack from the first seconds, carving out a 5.33 score, to which Medina calmly responded with a set of aerials that earned him 9.00 points.
It was then up to Ramzi Boukhiam to match the high numbers, and he did so in great style. The Moroccan surfer scored 8.17 and 7.17 to take the lead as Medina sat on the waves in waiting while Vaast attempted tricky airs but struggled with their completion.
Medina did not let Boukhiam enjoy the lead too long, however. He soon scored 6.60 to jump 0.26 ahead of the Moroccan, and then upgraded that to 7.40 to claim the gold for himself and a men’s team quota for Brazil.
“I surfed with him three times. He beat me three times,” Boukhiam told Olympics.com after finishing second to Medina. “He’s gnarly. He’s three-time world champ, but I know I can beat him on my day. I knew he was going to go into the air with his lefts and the wind, but I tried my best.”
While Boukhiam’s best of 15.34 points was not enough to grab gold, the Moroccan trailblazer was still overjoyed with his run at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, which included securing a ticket to his second Olympic Games.
The 30-year-old was making a return to the surfing scene after breaking his ankle before the start of the 2023 World Surf League’s Championship Tour and taking most of the year off for recovery. While Boukhiam did make an appearance at the 2023 World Surfing Games edition, he could not secure an Olympic quota at that event.
“It was all resilience. I had a really tough year last year,” Boukhiam said about his run in Puerto Rico. “I missed the qualification last year, so I knew it was going to be a tough job this year. But I did it.”
Vaast finished third with 14.33 points, with fellow Frenchman Joan Duru in fourth.
In the women’s competition, Australia’s Sally Fitzgibbons showed once more that her fire is not easily put out.
After her teammates Tyler Wright and Molly Picklum were eliminated from the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, diminishing Australia’s chances of winning the women’s team quota, Fitzgibbons scaled up her efforts to take the team into the lead on her own.
She advanced through six main rounds before being sent to the repechage and made a buzzer-beater jump into second place in Sunday’s morning heat that would decide which two women advance to the final.
While Weston-Webb got the better of Fitzgibbons in that repechage round, less than an hour later the fates were reversed as Fitzgibbons took first place with 13.10 points, her Brazilian rival 6.34 points behind.
In the end, however, the 1000 points Fitzgibbons earned for her tenacious win was still 35 points short of earning Australia an extra women’s team quota that could secure the veteran surfer’s own passage to the Olympic Games.
Speaking after the final, Fitzgibbons said she had no regrets.
“At the end of the day, just to come away with that gold medal, I have so much pride competing for my country,” Fitzgibbons said. “To get through a draw of so many surfers, that’s just wild, so you really have to be in the present moment and keep taking the opportunities and I did that right until the end.”
While defending champion Weston-Webb did not manage to match her performance from Surf City El Salvador, her second-place finish in Puerto Rico was enough to take Brazil into the lead of the women’s team event.
“I didn’t know what was happening in the end there,” Weston-Webb recalled of the moment when she was paddling back to shore. “I didn’t know if we won a spot or not, but one of my teammates said we got the third spot, and this is when I freaked out.”
As Weston-Webb came out of the water, her teammate Luana Silva rushed to embrace her.
Silva’s own Olympic quest ended in the fifth repechage round, but with Brazil’s extra quota, she now becomes the frontrunner to join the national squad on the quest for gold in Tahiti.
“I wanted her to make it so bad,” Weston-Webb said. “She deserved it. She’s been surfing so good. I did it for my country.”
France’s Johanne Defay finished third with the World Surfing Games surprise standout Nadia Erostarbe of Spain following in fourth.
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