US surfers cruise through opening round of Olympic surfing competition
Team USA’s surfers opened competition with a dominant showing on the first day of competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Competing at the famed Teahupo’o Wave, all five U.S. surfers won their heat to advance directly to Round 3.
Caroline Marks (Melbourne Beach, Fla.) dominated Heat 1 with a score of 17.93, the top score out of all men and women for the day. She outpaced her closest competitor by 9.46 points to take the win over Yolanda Hopkins (Portugal) and Sarah Baum (South Africa). On her fifth and final wave of the heat, Marks achieved the highest wave score in the women's field, earning a 9.43.
Marks was enthusiastic on the support of the U.S. team contributing to the team’s strong showing for the day.
“Everyone's just been so positive and so excited to be here,” Marks said. “It's really rare to stay with your other competitors — it's a very individual sport. I think we're just having a lot of fun and feeding off of each other. And even though we are all individually here to win our medals, we're all backing each other and supporting each other…We're all just really enjoying it because it's so rare for us.”
Caity Simmers (Oceanside, Calif.) came out on top in a stacked women’s heat with Tatiana Weston-Webb (Brazil) and Molly Picklum (Australia). Simmers secured the win with a score of 12.93, finishing 2.60 points ahead of Weston-Webb.
At just 18 years old, Simmers is the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic surfing team and is handling her Olympic debut with poise.
“You can kind of put it in your head as this huge, big thing. But I don't I don't think it really helps anything to do that,” Simmers said. “So it's just reminding myself that it's just another contest even though it is a big important thing. But the more I think that, the more weight I put on it, and then that's never good for me. So I’m just going out there as if it's anything else.”
In the final heat of the day, reigning Olympic Champion Carissa Moore (Honolulu, Hawaii) scored her two best waves of the heat in the final three minutes. With a score of 16.50, she bested Shino Matsuda (Japan) by 5.34 points. Teresa Bonvalot (Portugal) finished the heat in third.
Moore reflected on the collective success of the U.S. team.
“I can't wait to go back and relish in today and the success that everybody had because it was truly pretty special,” Moore said. “I feel like we've been the good vibe tribe like everybody's just been really supportive and encouraging of each other…Watching everyone win by win, I was like, damn, I’m the last heat of the day, I have to close this out for us…I'm happy to be part of just that greatness. So it's really motivating and inspiring.”
The U.S. men claimed the two highest scores of the day to win their respective heats and advance to round 3. John John Florence (Haleiwa, Hawaii) came out strong in Heat 6 with a score of 17.33 to take the win over Andy Criere (Spain) and Alan Cleland Quinonez (Mexico).
“It’s so cool to be representing where I'm from, representing America and Hawaii and come and get into the heat and start feeling really good and excited and energized…I think I just got into that, and I was just excited the waves were flying. I don't know. I feel in a really good place right now.”
Griffin Colapinto (San Clemente, Calif.) followed with a dominant performance in Heat 7 with a score of 17.03 over local favorite Kauli Vaast (France) and Luca Mesinas (Peru). Colapinto had the best wave of the day with a score of 9.53 points.
“I did the best heat I've ever done at Chopes for me, so just that alone feels really good,” said Colapinto. “And then as a team it's really cool to see John put up big scores right before me, and that inspired me a lot. We've been bonding on this trip more than ever. So yeah, it's cool to feel that come into the contest and see both of us perform well today.”
TEAM USA RESULTS
John John Florence: 1st in Heat 6; 17.33 points (9.33, 8.00)
Griffin Colapinto: 1st in heat 7; 17.03 points (9.53, 7.50)
Caroline Marks: 1st in Heat 1; 17.93 (9.43, 8.50
Caity Simmers: 1st in Heat 4; 12.93 (6.50, 6.43)
Carissa Moore: 1st in Heat 8; 16.50 (9.00, 7.50)
Full results from the Olympic Games Paris 2024 can be found at https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024.
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