France’s Kauli Vaast has won the Olympic gold medal in men’s surfing ahead of Australian Jack Robinson, while Caroline Marks from the United States hung on in a thrilling women’s surfing final at the Paris 2024 event held in Tahiti.
Local hero Vaast surfed a near perfect heat to claim gold at Teahupo’o, relegating tube-riding maestro Robinson to silver. The 22-year-old Vaast, who grew up in Teahupo’o and has caught some of the best waves of all-time at the perfect reef pass, quickly established dominance in the final and never gave it up, sparking celebrations on spectator boats in the channel and in a small fan zone.
Robinson had looked like the man to beat after knocking out Brazilian Gabriel Medina and American John John Florence in earlier rounds but the West Australian, who employs meditative breathing techniques and named his first son Zen, could not will a second wave to come and had to settle for silver.
Medina and Johanne Defay from France won the bronze medals, after beating Alonso Correa from Peru and Brisa Hennessy from Costa Rica, respectively.
“The dream came true. I can’t believe it right now but I just made history – for me, for all Tahitians, for Polynesia and France,” Vaast said, adding that he had lost his voice screaming back at local fans as he did a victory lap on a jet ski. “A lot of people surf and it’s part of our culture … I’m proud to say that surfing is born in Polynesia, so it means a lot for me.”
As Vaast collected his gold medal, a rooster – a symbol of France – ran around the presentation area and a Polynesian conch shell was blown.
After Teahupo’o delivered unquestionably the greatest day of Olympic surfing competition last week, waves for the morning of finals’ day failed to live up to expectations, with infrequent swells and tricky winds. But conditions improved as the day progressed and the men’s finals were held in clean, overhead barrels at “The End of the Road”, as Teahupo’o is also known.
Vaast drew first blood in the final, scoring a 9.5 out of 10 after pumping through a long, deep tube. Robinson followed with a slightly smaller version, but came out after the wave spit a blast of water and air into the channel to score a 7.83.
The French Polynesian surfer quickly got another excellent score, an 8.17 for some searing turns to total 17.67 and leaving the Australian chasing a near perfect score. But the waves of consequence did not arrive and both surfers were left bobbing around as the clock ticked down.
The women’s gold medal match ended with the reigning World Surf League champion Marks narrowly ahead of Tatiana Weston-Webb from Brazil, who was awarded the silver medal.
Waves were infrequent for the women’s final too, with a flurry at the end almost giving Weston-Webb enough to snatch victory from Marks. The Brazilian came up just short, however, finishing with a two-wave total of 10.33 to Marks’ 10.50.
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Earlier, the women’s semi-finals were filled with drama as Marks and Defay finished with their two-wave totals tied, the American squeaking through courtesy of the highest scoring single wave. In semi-final two, Brisa Hennessy suffered a brain fade and dropped in on Weston-Webb without priority, incurring a penalty that cost the Costa Rican all the points from her second scoring wave.
When surfing made its debut at the Tokyo Olympics, Marks finished just off the podium in fourth as the youngest man or woman in the competition.
In September, three days after winning her first world surfing title and automatically qualifying for a second Summer Games, Marks told the Guardian: “I think before Tokyo, no one really knew how it was going to go,” she says. “At least for myself, growing up all I cared about was surfing, so I didn’t really watch the Olympics too much. Now that I’ve been to the Olympics, I understand why it’s so incredible to make it, because of the feeling that you get for representing your country. It’s powerful. I also think it’s brought a lot of eyes to surfing and that’s really special.
“On the tour, everyone’s ultimate goal and dream is to win a world title because [it means] you are the best surfer in the world. You have 10 events, every single different kind of condition, going against everybody and Mother Nature. But if you ask the average person that doesn’t know anything about surfing, they do know about the Olympics. That’s where the Olympics is so huge. So in a perfect world you win both.”
