Paris 2024 surfing: All results, as USA's Caroline Marks to face Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb in women’s gold-medal final at Teahupo’o
The women’s Olympic Games Paris 2024 surfing final is set at Teahupo'o on the island of Tahiti, where the USA's Caroline Marks will face Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb later Monday, 5 August.
Monday's women's semi-finals, which followed the men's semis, came after three days of rest following the 1 August double-header round 3 and quarter-final competitions that saw an end to Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion **Carissa Moore’**s title defence.
The four women left came out swinging Monday. The two head-to-head heats saw goofy versus regular, with the goofy-footed riders, including Marks and Weston-Webb, advancing to the gold medal final.
Coming up short were France’s Johanne Defay and Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy, who will compete for bronze.
With no medallists from Tokyo 2020 advancing to the semi-finals, Paris 2024 will see an all-new women’s surfing podium. All four women in the medal matches are returning Olympians, with all four improving — most notably Marks and Hennessy, who both just missed the podium in Tokyo.
"I’m so happy. It feels so good … I was really emotional about not medalling in Tokyo, so I’m going to stop talking now because I’ll get emotional now that I know I’m going to get one," Marks said to Olympics. com after advancing to the gold medal final. "I sliced my foot a few times on the reef, so I’m glad it worked out. I’m just so happy. Best feeling ever — such a big heat. I’ve had some big moments in my career and that win felt pretty big. Stoked I got the score."
Weston-Webb was also thrilled to advance to the gold medal final. "I'm very happy I got to showcase my surfing," she said. "I really feel like I’m getting a handle of this wave and I’m glad it’s showing. For our country, this means so much and I can’t wait to represent Brazil in the final.”
Heat 1 saw Marks and Defay both finish with a combined heat score of 12.17. So it came down to the tie-breaker, which was Marks's highest wave score of 7.0. She earned her 7.0 in a clean frontside barrel, which saw her exit and carve back to finish, snapping a crisp hammer off the lip to close out a winning wave.
Heat 2 saw Weston-Webb use full rail turns and some excellent frontside tube riding to post the day's highest single wave score of 8.33 and a total heat score of 13.66 to win the semi-final heat over Hennessy. An accidental priority mishap in the heat effectively ended Hennessy’s chances, as she was penalized for the violation. Her heat ended with a single-wave score of 6.17.