USA surfer Griffin Colapinto and Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti earn spots for Paris 2024 Olympics
The two surfers secure berths through their ranking in the World Surf League’s Championship Tour, and join France’s Kauli Vaast, Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi, New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand and South Africa’s Jordy Smith who earned spots earlier through the 2023 World Surfing Games.
Surfing![Leonardo Fioravanti and Griffin Colapinto have qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games [Getty Images]](https://img.olympics.com/images/image/private/t_s_16_9_g_auto/t_s_w2440/f_auto/primary/kuu4yljbpxdpwbxxjbxg)
USA’s Griffin Colapinto and Italy’s Leonardo Fioravanti have secured spots at the men's surfing competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the International Surfing Association confirmed on Wednesday (19 July).
The two surfers have secured berths at the Games through their ranking in the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour 2023 following their performances at the J-Bay Open stage in Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.
The four-day competition in Tahiti would be an Olympic debut for 24-year-old Colapinto who has had a breakthrough season, topping the world rankings for the first time in May. Fioravanti will be making his second Olympic appearance after finishing ninth at Tokyo 2020 in 2021.
“Officially qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics to be held in Tahiti," the 25-year-old Rome native wrote on his Instagram. "It will be an honor to represent my country for the second time at the Olympics. A goal I’ve had since the beginning of the year and I’m proud I reached it! The road to Paris is long and this is just the beginning.”
The top 10 eligible male surfers from the 2023 Championship Tour season will earn a qualification spot for the next Olympic Games.
Fioravanti currently sits at No.9 in the world rankings, and is is guaranteed to be in the final 10 at the end of the season.
Colapinto is currently ranked second in the world behind Brazil’s Filipe Toledo.
Like Fioravanti, Colapinto was eliminated in the Round of 16 at J-Bay Open and finished ninth overall, picking up 3,320 points. The high total score took him out of reach of the other USA Paris 2024 hopefuls - Colapinto's highest-ranked teammate is Tokyo 2020 Olympian John John Florence, currently sitting in sixth place.
“Each year has been better than the last,” Colapinto told Olympics.com about the improvement he made in 2023 after finishing out of the Top 5 last season.
“To work on myself and my mental aspect, it's been a really big part of my progress in the last few years,” he explained. “It's really important because the better you get to know your thoughts and what comes into your head, then you can start noticing negative thoughts, good thoughts. And then from there you can of see those negative thoughts and you're not really attached to them. You get good at doing that and pushing (them) aside, understanding that those thoughts aren't you.”
Colapinto and Fioravanti are joined on the provisional Olympic startlist by four male surfers who qualified to Paris 2024 in June as the top ranked surfers on their continents at the 2023 World Surfing Games. They are France’s Kauli Vaast for Europe, Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi for Asia, New Zealand’s Billy Stairmand for Oceania, and South Africa’s Jordy Smith for Africa.
All the spots earned are provisional until a final announcement after the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games and review by the athletes’ respective NOCs.