Team USA's Caroline Marks advances to surfing semis, reigning champ Carissa Moore eliminated
Caroline Marks from Team USA made it to the semi-finals of the women's surfing event at the 2024 Paris Games. Unfortunately, the current Olympic champion, Carissa Moore from the U.S., was knocked out of the competition.
In the ocean near Teahupo'o, Tahiti, Marks won against Australia's Tyler Wright in the quarterfinals that were rescheduled for Thursday night because the competition had been stopped for two days because of bad weather.
Marks, who is from Melbourne Beach, Florida, got a perfect score of 4.00 on her first wave and a 3.77 on her fifth wave, giving her a total score of 7.77. This was higher than Wright's total score of 5.37.
Marks' win put Team USA in a good position to have half of the semifinal slots. However, Moore, who claimed the first women's surfing gold at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, was eliminated by France's Johanne Defay. Defay won the quarterfinal round against Moore with a score of 10.34 to 6.50.
Olympics Surfing Semifinal Pairings Decided
Marks and Defay will compete against each other in the semifinals for a chance to advance to the final round. The 22-year-old Marks narrowly missed out on a medal in Tokyo and is now aiming to secure the gold for Team USA.
In the next round, Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb will face off against Costa Rica's Brisa Hennessy in the semifinals.
In the men's division, Alonso Correa from Peru will compete against Kauli Vaast from France in the semifinals, while Gabriel Medina from Brazil will take on Jack Robinson from Australia.
What Are The Upcoming Surfing Events At 2024 Olympics?
The semi-finals and finals of the surfing competition for both men and women will happen on Saturday, August 3rd at 1 p.m. Eastern Time.
Where Will Olympic Surfing Take Place?
The surfing contests are taking place far from Paris, specifically in Teahupo'o, Tahiti, which is located thousands of miles away. Tahiti is a part of French Polynesia, which is a semi-independent region governed by France.
Tahiti warmly embraced the 2024 Olympic surfing competition with clear skies, traditional music, and the rich Polynesian heritage that pays tribute to the sport's long history. The event took place thousands of miles away from the official opening ceremony in Paris.
Deciphering Olympic Surfing Scoring
In surfing competitions, a group of five judges assesses an athlete's performance on a wave by assigning a score between 1 and 10 with very small increments. The highest and lowest scores are disregarded, and the average of the remaining three scores determines the athlete's total score for that particular wave ride.
The final score is calculated by combining the scores of a surfer's top two rides.
