On a quiet day for waves at Tahiti’s Teahupo’o surf break, USA’s Caroline Marks narrowly defeated Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb for the gold medal in a dramatic Olympic women’s surfing final.
The tension extended beyond the final buzzer as the athletes awaited the judges’ decision on Weston-Webb’s last ride. However, her score fell short, securing Marks’ victory.
In the final, competitors were given 35 minutes to post two high scores judged by a panel of 10 international judges. The top and bottom scores for each ride were discarded. The surfers’ top two scores, on a scale of 0-10, were combined for the final result. With few sets early in the final, neither surfer attempted a wave until the 24-minute mark, and neither posted a score better than 0.5.
Marks secured the first significant score of the final with a successful barrel ride with 17 minutes remaining, putting pressure on Weston-Webb. The ride earned a score of 7.5 from the judges, which ultimately made the difference in the contest. Weston-Webb countered with a 5.83 on a ride with nine minutes remaining. Less than two minutes later, Marks logged her second successful ride, replacing a secondary score of 1.43 with a 3.0, taking a 10.5-7.63 lead.
With two minutes left, Weston-Webb secured her second successful ride but didn’t catch a barrel. Time ran out with surfers waiting for the judges’ verdict on Weston-Webb’s final ride. She needed a 4.68 to win, but the ride was only good for a 4.5, securing a 10.5-10.33 win for Marks and the gold medal.
Marks, 22, secured the gold medal after finishing just off the podium in fourth place in Tokyo. On shore, she celebrated the win with her supporters. Marks reached the final by edging France’s Johanne Defay in the semifinal round earlier Monday. Both surfers scored 12.17 in their heat, but Marks advanced with a higher score of 7.00 on her best surf. Defay’s first wave scored a 6.50, and her second was a 5.67 (besting Marks’ 5.17). However, the highest single-wave score determines the tiebreaker.
Weston-Webb defeated Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy in the other semifinal. Defay claimed the bronze medal with a decisive 12.66 score, easily beating Hennessy’s 4.93 mark.
In the men’s final, Tahiti local Kauli Vaast secured gold for France on his home surf break over Australia’s Jack Robinson. Brazil’s Gabriel Medina won bronze.
This is the second consecutive medal for the U.S. in surfing, which became an Olympic sport at the Tokyo Games. Carissa Moore won gold for Team USA in the inaugural competition but lost in the Paris Olympics quarterfinals to Defay.