When Robert Kelly Slater finished equal 17th at the Quiksilver Pro France last week, he was visibly upset. The 11-time world champion has played coy about his ambitions to compete at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, but when he saw during their overlapping heats that his Olympic rival, Seth Moniz, soared during a match-up against Brazilian Peterson Crisanto, he knew what he had to do. And yet, he couldn’t get past his former Quiksilver teammate, Leonardo Fioravanti. As the live stream showed Fioravanti pumping his fist in elation as he ran up the beach, parallel footage followed Slater as he stalked back to his locker, letting the frustration burst through the seams.
Before France, we did a deep dive on the Kelly Slater versus John John Florence race for the second of two slots on Team USA’s roster. Recall that up to ten surfers will qualify on the men’s Championship Tour and eight women on the women’s CT when all concludes in Hawaii later this year. Kolohe Andino, currently ranked fifth, would appear to have the first spot locked up barring a catastrophic result at either of the next two events. But, post-France, Seth Moniz has only further cemented himself into the equation, so we thought it prudent to do a little update.
After not competing in the past four events and no plans to compete in Portugal, John John Florence’s solid results in the first half of the year see him sitting in eighth place on the Jeep Leaderboard. Consider that for a minute – an athlete has been out for half the season and still sits among the top ten surfers in the world. Crazy!
To get more specific, Florence has a total of 33,220 points. Plus if he remains out due to injury he’ll accumulate 265 points for the next two events bringing his total to 33,750. Seth Moniz, currently sitting in 11th has 27,535 points. And Kelly Slater, now sitting in 13th, has 27,035 points.
So, assuming Florence doesn’t compete at Pipeline, either Moniz or Slater would need to overcome that approximate 6,000 point threshold.
To do that, Moniz will need to at least get two equal ninths in the next two events (adding 6,640 points to his composite scorelines). And if Moniz were to bow out in the round of 32, he’d need at least an equal fifth at Pipe to pass Florence.
Slater now needs at least an equal ninth and an equal fifth in the next two stops. And if Slater was to get an equal 17th finish in Portugal, like France, he’d need at least an equal third at Pipe.
Those are pretty monumental asks for the rookie and the 11-time world champion, but consider that last year Slater managed an equal third at Pipe fresh off a hoof injury.
But again, all this is assuming Florence won’t compete at Pipe – which he’s said he’s willing to do to maintain eligibility for the Olympics. If that ends up being the case, all the quick and dirty math above goes out the window.
Bottom line: going into Portugal, American surf fans will no doubt be closely watching Slater and Moniz as they race to pass Florence and compete for gold next summer.
