PER – Alonso Correa
Credit: ISA / Jersson Barboza
Alonso Correa (PER), Anat Lelior (ISR), Camilla Kemp (GER), Janire Gonzalez-Extabarri (ESP) and Siqi Yang (CHN) all earned slots in Olympic competition in this week’s ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico. The selections represent one of the six slots available to men and finalize the eight slots available to women at the event, while the rest of the field of 24 men and 24 women who will appear in the Summer Games continue to shape up.
There are still 10 men in contention for the remaining five Olympic qualifying spots available after seven days of competing in Puerto Rico, including Championship Tour competitors Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR) and Rio Waida (INA). Meanwhile, France’s Joan Duru and Marco Mignot are competing for the final spot on the host country’s roster where they’ll be joined by Teahupo’o standout Kauli Vaast.
The entire qualification process and the different paths surfers can take to the Olympics features a list of different individual contests, rankings, and selections that date back to 2022. Ten men and 10 women each qualified through rankings on the WSL Championship Tour, of course, with the remaining 28 surfers coming from different non-CT qualifiers:
-24 men, 24 women.
-Maximum of two surfers per gender per National Olympic Committee (NOC). There will be two exceptions to this limit made for the winning teams, per gender, at the 2022 and 2024 ISA World Surfing Games (WSG) where each team will qualify one spot for their country/NOC.
-Qualification spots will be earned on an individual basis, by name, other than for 2022 and 2024 WSG Team World Champion slots.
-In accordance with IOC guidelines, the qualification events have been determined in hierarchical order of qualification, as further explained below; If two surfers of a gender have qualified through the first hierarchical order, that NOC will not be able to qualify more surfers of that gender through qualifying events lower in hierarchical order.
-All surfers selected by their respective National Federations for their national teams must have participated in 2023 and 2024 ISA World Surfing Games in order to be eligible for Olympic qualification. The final details of the eligibility requirements are still under review by the ISA and the IOC.
The hierarchical order of qualification will be as follows:
1. 2023 World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour: First 10 eligible men and first eight eligible women.
2. 2023 ISA World Surfing Games: four men and four women selected based on their continent. Top finishing eligible surfer of each gender from Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania.
3. 2023 Pan American Games: First eligible man and first eligible woman in the surfing competitions.
*We are here:
4. 2024 ISA World Surfing Games: First five eligible men and first seven eligible women.
5. 2024 ISA World Surfing Games: The winning teams by gender, will qualify one place for their respective country/NOC, regardless of the two-per country quota limit.
6. 2022 ISA World Surfing Games: The winning teams by gender, will qualify one place for their respective country/NOC, regardless of the two-per country quota limit.
7. Host nation slot: One man and one woman slot will be guaranteed for the host nation of France, unless already filled through the above hierarchies. Should athletes from France qualify regularly, their slots will be reallocated to the highest ranked eligible surfers from the 2024 World Surfing Games.
8. Universality Place: For the first time, one place per gender will be made available to eligible NOCs. Special consideration will be given to the nature of the wave at Teahupo’o in terms of the eligibility criteria for these places. Should there deemed to be no qualified surfers in this category, these slots will be reallocated to the highest ranked eligible surfers from the 2024 World Surfing Games. The complete process and selection criteria for these places will be communicated by the IOC at a later date.
