Carissa Moore, who took gold in surfing’s Olympic debut in Tokyo, qualified to defend that title in Paris next year.
Moore clinched her second Olympic berth via this season’s World Surf League standings. She’s ranked No. 1 going into the last two contests.
Moore, a 30-year-old Hawaiian, has three contest victories this season, one year after being upset by Australian Stephanie Gilmore at the World Surf League Finals.
Gilmore, 35 and a record eight-time world champion, could miss the Olympics, which will be held in Tahiti.
A nation can qualify no more than two surfers per gender via WSL standings, and she’s currently third among Australians. However, Australia could get a third spot if it wins next year’s World Surfing Games team event.
For the U.S. team, three women are front-runners for two remaining Olympic spots.
Caroline Marks, fourth in Tokyo, is having a bounce-back year after missing half of last season for health reasons. She’s ranked third in the world behind Moore and Australian Tyler Wright.
Caity Simmers, a 17-year-old Californian, is ranked fifth overall in her rookie year on tour.
Lakey Peterson was ranked third in the world in Tokyo Olympic qualifying, but missed the Games because the top two were her countrywomen Moore and Marks, and those Games capped nations at two surfers per gender. In that 10-event qualifying season, Peterson, whose grandfather created the McDonald’s Egg McMuffin, would have made the Tokyo team if she advanced one round further in one contest.
Last month, Peterson earned her first WSL contest win in four years to move into sixth in the season standings, just behind Simmers.
The top two Americans at September’s five-surfer WSL Finals in San Clemente, California, will be on the Olympic team. Moore is already guaranteed to be one of the top two.
The third and final U.S. Olympic women’s spot will go to the highest-placing American who finishes in the top four at the WSL stop in Tahiti that began Friday, excluding the two Americans who qualify through the WSL Finals.
If nobody meets that criteria in Tahiti, the third spot goes to the No. 3 American in the WSL standings at the end of the season.
On the men’s side, two-time world champion John John Florence is on the verge of joining the already qualified Griffin Colapinto on the U.S. Olympic team.
Colapinto, set to make his Olympic debut, is the highest-ranked American man this season (third in the world), followed by Florence (seventh in the world), who was ninth at the Tokyo Games.
No other Americans are in the world’s top 13.
The U.S. will get a third Olympic men’s spot if it wins the 2024 World Surfing Games team event. That spot would be filled under the same criteria as the third women’s spot.
Kelly Slater, the 51-year-old, record 11-time world champion, must reach the semifinals in Tahiti to keep his Olympic hopes alive. Slater’s best finish in eight contests this season is ninth place.
Italo Ferreira, the Brazilian who won the Tokyo Olympic title, could miss the Paris Games. He is ranked 12th in the world this season, and fifth among Brazilians, but is done for the season due to a right knee injury.
