Sky Brown keeps Paris 2024 surfing qualification hopes alive with dramatic repechage round results at ISA World Surfing Games
Final wave victory in one of her ISA World Surfing Games 2024 repechage heats gives British dual sport threat a chance to book a surf quota spot for the next Olympics.
Sky Brown came through her two repechage heats at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games on Thursday (29 February), to avoid elimination from the last Paris 2024 Olympic qualifier in the sport, streamed live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app.
She left it late in the first of her repechage heats but came through to win. She then finished in the top two of her second repechage to stay alive in the competition and move through to Friday's heats.
The British teenager had suffered a setback in her bid to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympics in two sports when she finished last in her women's round three heat a day earlier, but the repechage rounds on day five of competition in Puerto Rico allowed Brown the chance to avoid elimination and keep alive her chances of winning a berth in women's surfing.
Last wave win for Brown
Brown was placed last with a couple of minutes remaining in her repechage round four heat. She was competing against Tahiti-born Vahine Fierro, Japan's Maeda Mahina, and Spain's Janire Gonzalez-Etxabarri, but her final wave gave the British Olympian a chance, which she took, scoring 7.17 of 10.77 to top score in her heat.
"I feel very happy. It was a tough heat, it wasn't easy, but super glad I made it. Stoked on that really good wave at the end, got super lucky with that," she told Olympics.com on the beach afterwards.
"I knew the heat is not over until it's over. I started off very late. I got stuck in there again. That wasn't my game plan. But I knew I could still do it. Even when time is getting low, I know that if I get on that wave, I could still get through it."
"For me, I just want to show my surfing and my best."
"It definitely gives me a lot of confidence. Those girls in there, they were all amazing and I look up to them all so it was just crazy to make it through another heat and it gives me definitely a boost of confidence and a boost of fire."
Two hours later, she came through repechage round five, with a score of 10.44, behind Tokyo 2020 Olympian Anat Lelior of Israel (12.50), with two-time world champion Tyler Wright of Australia, and Germany's Rachel Presti both eliminated.
Brown did not know she finished in the top two until she came out of the water, and was surprised with the good news.
"My ears were water-logged so I couldn't hear anything and it's really hard to hear with the wind and everything," Brown told Olympics.com after getting out of the water and hugging her father at the end of her busy day's competition.
"Super stoked I made it. It wasn't an easy heat, so super happy I made it. When I came out and heard that I made it, I was definitely really happy."
"I'm just super stoked today to make it through and keep going and aim for the [Olympics]."
While Brown surfed twice within less than three hours, she said she was able to replenish her energy thanks to her father bringing her some food, chats with friends on the beach, and tuning in to some hype music, with Drake at the core of her playlist.
"It was definitely a quick back-to-back, but I still have a lot of energy in me," she said.
Brown will next compete on Friday, with coverage available live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app.
Brown became the youngest ever Olympian and Olympic medallist from Great Britain when she won bronze in the women’s park event at Tokyo 2020 in 2021, and is now aspiring to become the first athlete to qualify in both skateboarding and surfing at an Olympic Games.
There are eight individual quotas up for grabs in the women's competition at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, which serves as the final qualifier for Paris 2024
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.
