Paris 2024 Olympics: Respect and gestures of kindness rules surfing at Teahupo'o
In an Olympic surfing heat there can only be one winner. At Paris 2024, one athlete continues their journey in the Olympic Games while the other is out.
The first surfers were eliminated on Sunday (28 July), their Olympic dreams dashed and the next chance of representing their country at the Games is a distant four years away.
Naturally there was a lot of emotion but an impressive amount of kindness and respect as well.
Enter Kanoa Igarashi and Leonardo Fioravanti who have been friends for a long time.
In the first heat of the second round of the men’s competition, they faced off against each other. Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Igarashi was keen on going one better at this Games and started strong with a 7.17 ride. He backed that up with a second score of 6.70 to end the heat with a total of 13.87. A long way ahead of Fioravanti's 7.00.
“He’s my brother," Igarashi told Olympics.com. "I think we both proved we are winners in that heat no matter what the outcome was. We grew up surfing Teahupo’o as a kid, we shared our first session out at Teahupo’o together, I don’t think we ever thought we would be in an Olympic heat so just the fact we paddled out together was a big win for both of us.
"It was special,” he said.
After speaking with the media, the eliminated Italian went to walk down toward the water and noticed Igarashi’s father waiting to speak to his son. Leo stopped, shook hands and congratulated Tsutomu Igarashi. “Congratulations, you can be proud of that,” we overheard him say.
The next heat was a clash of the giants. Japan's Connor O’Leary and Germany’s Tim Elter are both over 6ft tall, and there’s an age gap of 10 years between them. At just 20, Elter was surfing with one of his idols but was knocked out at the hands of O’Leary.
Elter finished his media commitments quickly and then waited 10 minutes for O’Leary to be done with his. The pair then embraced and spent a few minutes chatting and discussing the heat. They agreed to meet up later and exchange uniforms. Elter walked away smiling, and visibly, as surfers say – stoked.
The very final heat of the day was a clash between two-time surfing world champion Filipe Toledo and New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand.
As the Kiwi waited for the jetskis to arrive to take him out to the break, Toledo appeared from behind, tapped him on the shoulder and hugged him.
“It’s all respect,” Toledo said after the heat. “I never play dirty or do something out of disrespect for my opponents. If I’m surfing against them it’s because they deserve to be in that spot and Billy and I go way back. He’s good friends with all the Brazilians. Good vibes. Always having fun and joking around. That’s the kind of vibe we have. We all love Billy and nothing but respect for him."
Stairmand earned a 8.17 first ride score but his total of 14.00 was not enough. Toledo was too clinical scoring a stunning 9.67 first ride on top of a 7.33 for a combined total of 17.00.
Stairmand was disappointed that the ocean was relatively flat for the first 15 minutes of their heat, but accepted that mother nature will be what it will be.
As if to help soften the blow, Toledo could not have been more courteous. After more hugs and hand shakes on the water, the duo came to shore and exchanged smiles and even a couple of laughs.
As the sun was setting and throwing a stunning light across the water and land, athletes and coaches piled onto a boat to head back to the floating Olympic Village they are all staying in.
As the boat pulled away from the pontoon, the driver turned up the music with Amy Winehouse’s hit song "Valerie" echoing across the water. But it wasn’t Amy’s voice, it was the 10 people onboard having in a floating karaoke session.
What a way to end this day of heartbreak and triumph.