Moore, Marks earn US women’s Olympic surfing spots
HONOLUA BAY, Hawaii (AP) — Carissa Moore of Honolulu and Caroline Marks of Melbourne Beach, Florida, qualified for the two spots on the U.S. women’s Olympic surfing team Sunday.
Moore and Marks finished as the top two American women on the 2019 World Surf League rankings. Lakey Peterson of Santa Barbara, California, who entered the final event of the season ranked No. 2 in the world behind Moore, missed a spot on the Olympic team when she was eliminated in the round of 16 and Marks advanced to the quarterfinals.
Marks, 17, came into the final event ranked third in the world.
While the top three women in the WSL rankings are American, only two surfers per gender per nation can compete when surfing makes its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games.
Kolohe Andino of San Clemente, California, has already earned one of the U.S. men’s spots. The second spot will be determined following the Hawaii Pipe Masters event starting next week. John John Florence of the North Shore is ranked No. 8 in the world and will try to hold off 11-time world champion Kelly Slater of Cocoa Beach, Florida, who is 10th in the world.
