Kauli Vaast and Caroline Marks took Gold in the second Olympic surfing event. American women are now undefeated in gold medal heats. Photos: Pablo Jimenez, Tim McKenna//ISA
After 10 days of competition in Tahiti, France’s Kauli Vaast and USA’s Caroline Marks emerged from a field of 48 surfers as the 2024 Olympic gold medalists. Marks kept the women’s gold medal with USA, building on Carissa Moore’s performance at Tokyo 2020. Vaast’s gold for France is the first-ever for his country in surfing.
Rounding out the men’s podium was Australia’s Jack Robinson with the silver and Brazil’s Gabriel Medina with bronze. Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb took women’s silver and France’s Johanne Defay earned bronze. France and Brazil led the surfing medal count with two surfers each on the podiums.
I wrote a story in June declaring that the Tahitians would show the world how important homefield advantage is in surfing, particularly at the uniquely difficult wave of Teahupo’o. That’s exactly what Vaast did. When Kauli threaded an impressively long barrel worth 9.5 points to kick off the scoring in the men’s final, Robinson later said that he thought his opponent was too deep. Vaast admitted he wasn’t sure if he would make it either, but ultimately his knowledge of the reef paid off.
Kauli Vaast took the wave of the day with a 9.5. Photo: Pablo Jimenez // ISA
Within five minutes, Vaast quickly put Robinson up against the wall with an 8.17 tube to back up the 9.5. Robinson had no choice but to wait for a near-perfect wave, needing to add a 9.84 score to his 7.83 to take the gold. Unfortunately for Robinson, even with 25 minutes left on the clock, a wave with sufficient scoring potential never came. He finished the heat with just one ride.
“This is the dream come true,” said Vaast in a raspy voice from too much screaming during his celebrations. “I can’t believe it. I just made history for me, for all Tahitians, for surfing, and for Polynesia. I couldn’t be more proud.”
“I hope that people in the world realize that we still have the best and the craziest wave in the world when it’s big,” he added.
Infrequent sets were a common theme on finals day and played a key factor in many of the outcomes. The anticipated swell that the organizers decided to wait three days for didn’t quite materialize as they’d hoped. As Robinson stated in the press conference after the finals, “The most difficult thing was working with Mother Nature today.”
During the first heats of the day, the arriving swell had still barely started to show. Even when the swell did begin to build in the afternoon, the sets were scarce. Managing priority and getting two waves was the key to success. Only three waves were ridden in the men’s final – two for Vaast and one for Robinson. It was an anticlimactic finale for the wave that had shown us its fiercest colors just a week earlier. But so goes the world of surfing and relying on swells.
Caroline Marks found a solid barrel against Tatiana Weston-Webb in an otherwise wave-deprived heat. Photo: Tim McKenna//ISA
The women’s final was also relatively wave-deprived. Marks took advantage of a solid barrel that set her apart with a 7.5 score. She also had another barrel chance to cement the win, but fell on the tube’s exit. Weston-Webb took off on a wave in the final minutes that could have passed Marks — needing a 4.68 — but she came up shy with a 4.5.
“(Tati and I) both didn’t quite know what the other needed,” said Marks. “Once they announced that she didn’t get enough, I burst into tears – super emotional. Your whole life goes into a moment like this, so it’s really special.”
In the men’s bronze medal match, Medina redeemed his fourth place finish in Tokyo 2020 and earned a spot on the podium with a pair of 7.77 wave scores. Peru’s Alonso Correa couldn’t match Medina’s determined surfing, earning a 12.43 heat total that caused him to miss out on the podium.
Gabriel Medina took advantage of priority in his bronze medal matchup against Alonso Correa. Photo: Tim McKenna//ISA
However, Medina’s medal was not without controversy. Medina was awarded priority in a paddle battle where it appeared Correa had a solid meter lead ahead of him. The broadcast replay didn’t show the entire paddle, so I questioned both athletes to understand how it played out.
“That was crazy,” said Correa. “That had never happened to me, where I got the first wave of the exchange and he got the second one. I was further in front of him getting into the lineup and didn’t get priority. It was frustrating because I was fully ahead of him. It totally changed the heat.”
Medina used that priority to get one of his top-scoring waves. Correa was forced to take off on a smaller wave with second priority. However, Medina had a different point of view on the topic.
“It happened to me before in Teahupo’o,” explained Medina. “I knew if I went inside him, I would get priority. Thank God this time it went for me because I’ve lost a few priorities like this, and I used to get so angry, but this time I got it.”
France’s Johanne Defay defeated Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy for a bronze finish. Photo: Tim McKenna//ISA
In the women’s bronze medal match, Johanne Defay’s heat total of 12.66 easily surpassed Hennessy’s 4.93. Hennessy committed a costly interference by unknowingly dropping in on Weston-Webb. In her post-final interviews, Hennessy solemnly stated that she thought Weston-Webb didn’t want the wave. She checked over her shoulder, but too early. Between the time Hennessy put her head down and when she got up on the wave, Weston-Webb had paddled and decided she wanted to use her priority. Hennessy never regained her composure, which appeared to affect her flow in the loss.
Now surfing enters its third Olympic cycle – LA2028. Despite having two successful showings in the Games, surfing will not receive a cut of the Paris 2024 TV revenue. This is due to a rule passed by the Association of Summer International Federations – the body that distributes the funds. The new rules require three cycles of inclusion before getting a cut of the revenue share, which is seemingly a direct attack on the new sports – surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing – that were included in Tokyo 2020.
Caroline Marks built on Carissa Moore’s legacy, keeping women’s gold for the USA. Photo: Pablo Jimenez//ISA
“We did get help from the IOC in the period after Tokyo, but we haven’t made a deal (for the next four years),” said ISA President Fernando Aguerre in the post-event press conference. “That’s part of the conversation. I guess by now you’d say that surfing has proven its worth to the world. Of course, we still feel that we should be part of the distribution, but we’re surfers. If we miss a wave, we just turn around, go back out, and paddle harder.”
The ISA received $2.7 million from the IOC in the three years from 2021 to 2024. I imagine it’s almost certain that they’ll strike a deal for more money in the next four years ahead of LA 2028.
Men’s results:
Gold – Kauli Vaast (FRA)
Silver – Jack Robinson (AUS)
Bronze – Gabriel Medina (BRA)
Women’s results:
Gold – Caroline Marks (USA)
Silver – Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA)
Bronze – Johanne Defay (FRA)
View the full results here.
