Caroline Marks wins Olympic surfing gold

By VICTORIA MILKO | The Associated Press

TEAHUPO’O, Tahiti  — San Clemente resident Caroline Marks won the women’s surfing gold medal while French Polynesian Kauli Vaast won the gold medal in men’s surfing on Monday at the Paris Olympics in Tahiti.

Cheers and tears erupted from boats floating near the wave and crowds of spectators along the shore as the men’s final match ended in the afternoon as Vaast pumped his arms into the air in victory after beating Jack Robinson from Australia, who received the silver medal.

The women’s gold medal match ended about 30 minutes later, with Marks, a Florida surfer who has lived in San Clemente the past decade, beating Tatiana Weston-Webb from Brazil, who was awarded the silver medal. After a slow start, Marks caught the first scoring wave of the competition and never gave up the lead. She won by a total score of 10.50 to 10.33 when Weston-Webb’s final ride came up short.

“Once they announced she didn’t get enough (points for Weston-Webb to win), I was just like, oh my gosh. I just burst into tears, just super emotional,” Marks said. “Your whole life goes into a moment like this, so it’s just really special.”

For the bronze medals, Gabriel Medina from Brazil and Johanne Defay from France won after beating Alonso Correa from Peru and Brisa Hennessy from Costa Rica, respectively.

All winners of the Paris Olympics surfing competition are first-time Olympic medalists, after defending Olympic women’s champion Carissa Moore of the United States — who won at the Tokyo Games, where Olympic surfing debuted — was beaten in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

“Obviously I’m really sad to not be a part of finals day, to get to represent my home and my family one more time, but I’m really grateful,” Moore said after her loss. “I just hope that at the end of the day I can encourage whoever is watching, win or lose, don’t be afraid to go into it fearlessly and don’t be afraid to fail.”

The final day of the Paris Olympics surfing competition began Monday morning after two days of delays due to unfavorable conditions. In the morning, conditions were smaller than the heavy, barrel-shaped waves Teahupo’o is famed for and that were seen during part of the men’s competition the week before.

But by the afternoon waves grew larger and more frequent, giving athletes a chance to impress judges with the time they spent inside the barrels. At one point during the competition, a whale jumped out of the water while surfers were in the water.

Six of the eight surfers who made it to the semifinals represented different nations. French Polynesian, Peruvian, Australian and other national flags flew from boats near the waves.

“I just feel very proud,” Marks said. “I felt like my whole country was behind me. This is the biggest stage. This feels damn good.”

While not every surfer who competed was able to bring home a medal, many agreed that the second-ever Olympics surfing competition — filled with viral photographs, record-breaking scores and hours of stunning video footage broadcast to viewers around the world — helped promote the sport.

“Everyone’s watching and paying attention,” said Medina, who said he gained millions of social media followers after a photo of him floating in the sky next to his surfboard while bailing out of a wave went viral during the competition. “I think surfing wins”

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Caroline Marks wins GOLD in women’s surfing! This is the second-ever medal in surfing for Team USA. 🏄‍♀🥇#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/Ebqd6mwRzs

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 6, 2024