Robinson, McGillivray, Inaba, and Cleland earn surfing quotas for Paris 2024
Australia, South Africa, and Japan now eligible to have at least two male surfers competing on the Teahupo'o wave during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games while Mexico are due to be represented at an Olympic surfing competition for the first time.
Surfing
Four male athletes have been added to the list of those provisionally qualified for the surfing competition of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Australia's Jack Robinson and South Africa's Matthew McGillivray have earned quota spots through their World Surf League 2023 men's season ranking. Both athletes have been competing at Tahiti Pro, where the round of 16 ended on Tuesday (15 August), and their performances have ensured they've secured the points needed to finish as the top two athletes from their countries at the end of the year.
If included on the national delegations for Paris 2024,
It would be the first Olympic appearance for the two surfers.
Robinson is still in the running at Tahiti Pro, which runs from 11 to 20 August, and will next compete in the quarter-final against Brazil's Yago Dora.
McGillivray did not advance past the elimination round.
Olympic surfing champ Carissa Moore earns Paris 2024 quota spot for USA
Robinson's rocky journey
Robinson had a strong start to the 2023 WSL Championship Tour season with a victory at the opening stop in Pipeline. More finals day appearances followed until he got injured at the home competition in Bells Beach in April.
While Robinson has struggled to get back to his best form, a comeback in the last two competitions secured his standing as the second highest-ranked Australian on the Tour, behind Ethan Ewing, and helped to fend off tough competition from his teammates.
"So happy to have qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics," Robinson wrote in an Instagram post. "This year has been a rollercoaster after the injury I suffered in Bells, but I didn’t want to give up on my goal of qualifying for the Olympics and kept working hard for it. I’m so stoked it all worked out."
Smith and Igarashi free up two spots
Japan's Kanoa Igarashi has also secured a provisional quota spot for Paris 2024 based on his world ranking after Tahiti Pro.
Since the Tokyo 2020 silver medallist had already received a quota as the top-ranked male surfer from Asia at the 2023 World Surfing Games, that spot will now pass to his teammate Inaba Reo, who made it to the finals day of the competition in El Salvador in June.
South African Jordy Smith also earned a quota through the World Surf League after making it to the round of 16 at Tahiti Pro. Smith earlier won a quota as the top-ranked African male surfer at the 2023 World Surfing Games.
As there were no other African surfers who met qualification criteria, that spot will now pass to Mexico's Alex Cleland, who won the men's title in El Salvador.
The four new additions to the Paris 2024 provisional qualification list join three others surfers who have received provisional quotas during Tahiti Pro: USA's Carissa Moore and John John Florence, and Australia's Tyler Wright.
Three more quotas to be decided through the Championship Tour
A total of 10 male quotas and eight female quotas will be awarded based on the World Surf League's ranking for the 2023 season. One spot remains among the men and two among the women.
The male quota will be decided among the Brazilian athletes with Yago Dora and three-time world champion Gabriel Medina still in the hunt.
Australia and the United States are each in line to grab a women's quota.
Eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore is trying to qualify for her second Olympic Games, but will need to place higher than rising star Molly Picklum to do so. Picklum has already secured herself a spot among the final five to compete at the Championship Tour finals in Lower Trestles, California from 8 to 16 September.
Tokyo 2020 Olympian Caroline Marks and Championship Tour rookie Caitlin Simmers are fighting for the USA quota. However, as USA won an extra quota for the women's team at the 2022 World Surfing Games, both surfers still have good chances of competing at Paris 2024.
As National Olympic Committees (NOCs) 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.