Portugal's Yolanda Sequeira, Peru's Sol Aguirre and Brazil's Taina Hinckel clinched three of the eight women's Olympic quotas available at the final Olympic surfing qualifier, while five Tokyo 2020 surfers were denied a second Olympic ticket on the sixth day of competition in Puerto Rico.
(Pablo Franco/ISA)
here were celebrations and tears on Arecibo beach on the sixth day of the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games as three female surfers closed in on the first of the quotas available at the final Olympic surfing qualifier, while others saw their Olympic dreams dashed within inches of the coveted ticket.
Eight individual quotas are on the line in the women’s competition in Puerto Rico with Portugal's Yolanda Sequeira, Peru's Sol Aguirre, and Brazil's Taina Hinckel laying claim to the first three on Thursday, 29 February.
Paris 2024 will mark the second Olympic appearence for Sequeira and the Olympic debut of Aguirre and Hinckel.
*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.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Portugal’s Yolanda Sequeira finished first in her heat against current world No.1 Molly Picklum and three-time World Surfing Games champion Sally Fitzgibbons, both of Australia.
“I’m pretty confident with my surfing,” Sequeira told Olympics.com after winning her heat and securing a provisional Olympic quota.
“I feel like I belong in that top tier of surfing and I just want to get there. I love both of them as people and friends, and I’ve known them for quite a long time and it’s just a joy to share the line-up with them.”
At Tokyo 2020, Sequeira advanced to the quarter-finals where she was lost to eventual silver medallist Bianca Buitendag of South Africa.
With the pressure of qualifying for the Olympic Games off, Sequeira can now focus on battling for the World Surfing Games title. Her main opponent in the next round in Puerto Rico will be reigning world champion Caroline Marks. The USA surfer advanced to the fifth main round while her teammate, Olympic champion Carissa Moore survived two repechage rounds.
“It’s great to still be in the comp and have more opportunities to surf heats,” Moore told Olympics.com. “It’s a really fun atmosphere, everyone’s surfing really well and there’s a lot on the line.”
Both USA women already have a provisional quota for Paris 2024 as well as an extra, third quota for the team so their focus is on getting a World Surfing Games title. For the other teams, however, that third Olympic quota looms large in the mind.
Australia suffered a setback when Tyler Wright got eliminated in a repechage heat that also featured dual sport athlete Sky Brown. Wright’s exit will make it harder for Sally Fitzgibbons to make the Paris 2024 team despite her stellar surfing at Puerto Rico.
Like Wright, Ecuador’s Dominic Barona and Japan’s Maeda Mahina were eliminated on the sixth day of competition while Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Tsuzuki Amuro and fellow Tokyo 2020 Olympian Anat Lelior of Israel remain in the running for quota spots.
With the main round 4 for men and women wrapping up, many surfers are now one round away from learning about their Olympic destinies. In addition to the eight individual quotes available for women, there are six quotas up for grabs in the men's event.
Chile’s Manuel Selman is eager to clinch one of them.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympian suffered a setback in his previous heat against the local favourite Brian Toth and two-time world champions Filipe Toledo and John John Florence. Finishing third in that round 3 heat sent him into repechage, which means he has to finish in the top two in every heat for a chance to go to Tahiti in July.
Brushing off yesterday’s disappointment, Selman rose to the challenge with victories in his back-to-back repechage heats. He scored 10.16 points in his first heat and caught a 7.67-scoring wave in the second.
Speaking to Olympics.com later, Selman credited his knowledge of Puerto Rico’s El Pico break, which he has surfed since he was 15 years old, for getting ahead of the competition.
“I feel really comfortable surfing these waves. I’ve been coming to Puerto Rico since I was really young,” he said after beating WSL Championship Tour surfer Frederico Morais and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Miguel Tudela. “I feel at home here and I think it is an advantage that I have for trying to go all the way.”
Advancing to the sixth repechage round takes Selman closer to his goal of qualifying for the 2024 Olympics. At the moment, Chile’s National Olympic Committee has no surfing quotas at the upcoming Games.
“I really want to be in the Olympics again,” Selman said. “That’s the goal, that’s what we’re working for. The Pan American Games were very disappointing for me and this is a second chance and I’m trying to make the most of it.”
While Selman got one step closer to Paris 2024, fellow Tokyo 2020 competitors, Peru’s Tudela, Germany’s Leon Glatzer, and Argentina’s Leandro Usuna saw their hopes of a repeat Olympic appearance crushed when they were eliminated in Puerto Rico.
Costa Rica’s Carlos Munoz, who received an invitation to replace Morais at the Tokyo 2020 but was not able to arrive at 48-hour notice, also saw his Olympic dreams dashed as he exited the World Surfing Games in the fourth repechage round.
In the men’s main round, Gabriel Medina held nothing back as he packed his round four heat with risky moves and high-scoring aerials.
Medina is hoping to add an Olympic medal to his three world titles, but since Brazil already has two men quotas filled, his pathway to Paris 2024 depends on Brazil winning the men’s team competition.
Brazil is currently tied in points for first place with France and Spain.
All three French men remain in the main round, but Kauli Vaast is the only one among them with an individual quota so far, which means the Brazilians could still lock the third quota with help from Medina’s teammates Filipe Toledo and Yago Dora.
Toledo won both of his repechage heats on Thursday to give Medina an Olympic lifeline and help keep the team’s spirits high.
“Yago, Gabriel and even with the girls, we have a very good relationship,” the reigning world champion told Olympics.com. “Our team, we're very close, so we always have lunch together, we go surfing together. When everyone is together, it's really cool, because we end up having fun. Everyone plays and has fun and it ends up becoming a lighter environment that also translates to the competition in the water.
“Gabriel is one of the funniest guys. He's always making jokes, playing with things and that’s it. We should be having fun, and we're happy because we do it right, feeling very light.”
“It's amazing to be able to be here, to be surfing against other countries. We see everyone's surfing styles, from places we couldn't even imagine…It's really cool to be able to share what we do with other athletes, to see how big our sport is,” Filipe Toledo to Olympics.com
Follow the action from the final Olympic surfing qualifier live from anywhere in the world on Olympics.com and the official Olympics app.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Spain's Nadia Erostarbe had also clinched a women's quota on Thursday.