Vahine FIERRO

Vahine Fierro will not lack for home support should she be selected to represent France at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Raised on the island of Huahine in French Polynesia, she moved to nearby Tahiti - the home of Paris 2024 surfing venue Teahupo’o - as a teenager.

Teahupo’o is one of the most fearsome waves in surfing with Fierro admitting to being “quite terrified by it” in her youth.

But after conquering that fear, she cannot keep away and says, “The best drug I think you can ever have is to catch a wave at Teahupo’o.”

The 2018 world junior champion received a wildcard for the 2022 Tahiti Pro, the first women’s competition on Teahupo’o for 16 years.

Her local knowledge proved invaluable as she beat Olympic champion Carissa Moore and French star Johanne Defay on the way to third place.

A regular on the World Surf League Challenger Series, Fierro obtained an Olympic quota spot for France at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games.

And having been awarded a second wildcard for the 2023 Tahiti Pro, she repeated her third-place finish against the WSL’s finest to mark herself out as a genuine medal contender on the wave she knows so well.