American Caroline Marks and France’s Kauli Vaast have become the 2024 Olympic surfing champions.
Marks, 22, who narrowly missed out on bronze at Tokyo 2020, clinched the women’s title in French Polynesia.
The surfing competition was held 9,800 miles from Paris in Tahiti, the birthplace of Vaast.
Tahiti was chosen for its legendary Teahupo’o wave, which Vaast, also 22, first surfed at the age of eight.
Vaast’s best two waves in the final scored a total of 17.67, giving him a clear victory over Australia’s Jack Robinson, who scored 7.83.
Vaast had beaten Peru’s Alonso Correa in the semi-finals, while Robinson overcame Brazil’s Gabriel Medina.
A stunning image of Medina celebrating an Olympic record 9.9 wave earlier in the competition went viral last week. Medina (15.54) defeated Correa (12.43) to clinch the bronze medal.
Marks (10.50) secured a narrow victory over Brazil’s Tatiana Weston-Webb (10.33) in the women’s final.
Johanne Defay, from the mountainous region of Auvergne, earned another surfing medal for hosts France by defeating Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy 12.66 to 4.93 for bronze.
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