Kolohe Andino provisionally qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo when he advanced through the Round of 32 at the Meo Rip Curl Pro Portugal. Photo: Damien Poullenot/WSL
If you were expecting champagne showers while friends carried Brother off the beach on their shoulders, this was a letdown. Kolohe Andino beat Jadson Andre in his Round of 32 Heat at the Meo Rip Curl Pro Portugal Friday and before he could make it to his post-heat interview, he was told he’d just provisionally qualified for the first of two spots on Team USA. That means unless he decides he just doesn’t want to compete in the 2020 ISA World Surfing Games (or some other random qualification scenario none of us completely understand), Kolohe Andino is an American Olympian.
“I just walked up and Renato came up to me, and I thought he was gonna tell me I was getting drug tested,” Andino said with a pretty awkward laugh. Honestly, it was a really awkward laugh. “But then he told me I qualified for now or something, you know they still have to — I made myself eligible through the WSL or something…”
His next statement probably told you all you need to know about the apparent lack of excitement, saying that his real goal this year was to finish World #1, knowing the 2020 Olympic qualification would be a packaged deal.
This could be seen as making a mountain out of a molehill here but if there’s one thing I do know about professional athletes it’s that they’re not at all casual about the goals they set for themselves. If you think anybody in the Top 5 didn’t board their flights to Europe last month knowing exactly what results they needed down the stretch, what needs to happen to the athletes in front of them, and how it can all add up to a world title, then you’re naive and really buy too much into the whole “surfing shouldn’t be a competitive sport” narrative. In fact, Kolohe said as much when he pointed out that “some weird stuff has to happen” in order to win his first CT title. And I’d give heavy odds that Kolohe and his dad both crunched enough numbers to know exactly how much “weird stuff” adds up to an Andino world title — probably down to the thousandth of a point.
But qualifying for the Olympics? Oh, cool. Yeah, stoked.
None of this is an indictment of Andino. It’s been great for the sport to see him compete consistently at such a high level this year. If anything, it might be an eye-opening moment for this whole “surfing in the Olympics” experiment. Kelly Slater’s had the carrot dangled in front of him for months but can’t seem to grab it. Meanwhile, Seth Moniz just fumbled the ball inside the red zone by getting eliminated two heats into the contest. For you non-football fans (real football, not that armless “it’s like watching chess” game), that’s just a metaphor for missing out on a really good opportunity.
There are four spots on a given Olympic surf team (two men and two women). One of the two men’s spots is literally up for grabs but nobody seems to be able to snatch it. One spot just got locked up and the guy who earned it just…er…didn’t seem that stoked. Not that he has to or should be stoked — to each their own. It’s understandable that CT vets would all be more intensely focused on the task at hand, which is to win a world title, but it does beg one question now: If the WSL and ISA can’t get its best athletes excited for Olympic surfing, can they honestly expect the fans to stoked on the event next year in Japan?
