So far, five athletes have qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics via the 2023 Surf City El Salvador World Surfing Games, according to the International Surfing Association. The first to make the cut were South Africans Jordy Smith and Sarah Baum, who qualified for the African continent. New Zealanders Saffi Vette and Billy Stairmand qualified for Oceania. Japanese surfer Shino Matsuda qualified for the continent of Asia.
At the ISA games, the best placed men’s and women’s athlete from four continents (Africa, Asia, Europe and Oceania) will qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Americas do not qualify anyone through El Salvador, and instead will do so via the winner of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago.
Going in to day seven of the games, this leaves three slots open, a male athlete for Asia and both European surfers.
However, the ISA games are not the only path to qualification. In addition, the top 10 men and top 8 women from the 2023 WSL CT season will earn a spot. Four women have qualified in this way so far: Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb, Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy, France’s Johanne Defay, and Portugal’s Teresa Bonvalot.
Two countries have also already qualified surfers through the 2022 ISA games. Japan won a spot for the men and the United States for the women. However, which surfers will compete in these slots has not been decided yet. They will be selected by each country’s olympic committee after the rest of the qualifying events, and do not count against the two-athlete limit per country.
As previously mentioned, the winners of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago will earn spots.
Then, at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, the top five men and top seven women will earn a place. In addition, the countries best placed in the men’s and women’s competitions will also earn one spot, regardless of whether they have already qualified two athletes, the same as with the 2022 event.
As the host country, France is guaranteed one place per gender. However, this only goes into effect if France does not have any qualified athletes yet. If an athlete from France has already qualified, as in the case of Johanne Defay, the slot will be reallocated to the next highest ranking eligible surfer from the 2024 ISA WSG.
Finally, one spot is the “universality place.” Per the ISA, “This is meant to promote development, provide opportunity to smaller nations, and progress the sport on a global scale.” Any National Olympic Committee can submit a surfer, as long as they are in the top 50 of the 2023 or 2024 ISA world Surfing Games. After that, a commission will decide on which candidate gets to attend the games.
As one of the first to qualify via the ISA games, Jordy Smith spoke on what it meant to clinch a guaranteed spot. “For me it’s overwhelming to be able to qualify now. Having the opportunity to surf at Teahupo’o is going to be insane. I’ve been going there since I was 14-years-old, so I’ve got a lot of experience. Hopefully mother nature plays ball on those days and we come away with gold.” Though the ISA result makes his qualification a done deal, Jordy is likely to also qualify via the CT.
Sarah Baum shared his enthusiasm. “Honestly, I’m so lost for words,” she told the ISA. “It’s been an emotional rollercoaster the last week, so to finally do it and have the whole team here, the flags are flying everywhere, everyone is screaming, it’s just a dream come true. I’m so happy. I can’t wait to just go get barreled.”
