Pan American Games 2023: Lucca Mesinas and Tatiana Weston Webb take surfing's shortboard gold in Pichilemu
Mesinas secured gold and an Olympic quota on a borrowed board. Canada's Sanoa Dempfle-Olin has also obtained a spot for Paris 2024.
Surfing
Thousands of people showed out to Pan American Games' surfing finals to witness Peru's Lucca Mesinas and Brazil's Tatiana Weston Webb take shortbaord gold in the small Chilean town of Pichilemu, also known as the "Capital Mundial del Surf," or surfing capital of the world.
Translated to Wolf’s Point, Punta de Lobos’ surf reports forecasted triple overhead with strong onshore winds for finals day on Monday, 20 October.
Mesinas was not equipped for the heavy conditions and took the gold on a borrowed board from Argentina's Franco Radziunas after looking through the racks, choosing his favorite, and messaging Radziunas on Instagram to ask if he could use his board for the semi-finals and finals.
"When I arrived to the competition and saw such big waves, I came in to the athlete’s area trying to find a board that would work for me" Mesinas told Olympics.com.
"When I saw Franco Radziunas' board, I saw that it could totally fit me. I sent him a private message on Instagram and he replied in a few seconds and gave it to me. I just used it and it went super well. Super thankful to Franco!"
It didn't seem to affect his performance too much and the crowed roared when his heat concluded and he was announced as the winner.
The audience made up of thousands lined the coast on cliffs that stood 50m above the water with Chilean flags, bells and winter coats to watch the action go down.
Quota spots to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games were obtained by Mesinas and Canada’s Sanoa Dempfle-Olin, who have now secured their spots to represent their countries at the surfing’s Olympic Games on the infamous wave Teahupo’o.
Tatiana Weston Webb of Team Brazil competes in the Women's Shortboard Final at Punta de Lobos beach on Day 10 of Santiago 2023 Pan Am Games on October 30, 2023 in Pichilemu, Chile.
Mesinas made it through the bronze medal round earlier in the day to face Venezuela's Francisco Bellorin in the final, and defeated him with a score of 13.61 over his 9.10.
The Peruvian will take the gold and secure a spot at the 2024 Games, all from a day on a borrowed board.
"To qualify for Paris means everything, especially because the place is Tahiti and the wave is Teahupoo. It’s an incredible and magic place with a very powerful wave," he told Olympics.com.
Weston Webb took the women's shortboard gold, and as she has already secured her spot at next summer's games, Canada's Dempfle-Olin obtained herself a quota with the silver.
When speaking about the heavy Tahitian wave, Dempfle-Olin said “I've been lucky enough to actually visit Tahiti and go and train at Teahupo'o twice. Once with Billabong, once with Team Canada. I love it there. I love surfing barreling lefts, and I'm excited just to get more trips in there and to improve my surfing in those conditions. ”
Athletes still have opportunities to obtain the Olympic quotas, with the biggest being the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games.
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.