Caroline Marks strikes gold in down-to-the-wire women’s surfing Olympic final

Caroline Marks and Tatiana Weston-Webb headed into the gold medal bout having gone through two drastically different semifinal rounds.

Marks won by the slimmest of margins, delivering a clutch wave as time expired to tie the score. However, her last wave was the highest of the heat, giving her a tiebreaker win over France’s Johanne Defay to get some revenge for her teammate Carissa Moore, who Defay knocked out in the quarterfinals.

Weston-Webb on the other hand had an incredibly easy semifinal round. Her opponent, Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy, made a massive mistake early on, receiving a priority interference and getting penalized by only being allowed to count one wave score. Weston-Webb calmly served up a pair of five-plus rides to clinch her spot in the gold medal match with nearly half of the period remaining. 

The women were hoping for some gorgeous waves in the gold medal final after seeing the men receive some pristine sets. They had to wait a little longer than expected though, as the first major score opportunity didn’t arrive until nearly halfway through the gold medal final.

It was none other than Caroline Marks that took advantage, entering with a tardy drop that allowed her to stall right in the pit of the barrel. She disappeared for a moment before bursting through the foam ball for a clean exit and a 7.50.

Once she had set herself up with the lead, the American’s IQ took over. Marks recognized the scarcity of hollow swells rolling in and played priority throughout the latter half of the final. She padded her advantage with some decent rides when she could and blocked Weston-Webb when the few larger waves came through.

In the final moments, she tried to put it away with a huge score, but a wipeout left the door open for the Brazilian. Weston-Webb found the wave she’d been waiting for and dropped in to try to steal the match. The barrel never formed though, and she adapted to string together a few great turns and took the wave for as long as she possibly could, beaching herself on the shallow reef.

Needing just a 4.68 to win the gold, the surfers both anxiously awaited the score announcement after time ran out. Eventually, the loudspeakers announced a 4.50 — just shy of what Weston-Webb needed to take over the lead.

With another tight victory secured, Marks arrived back to shore on the shoulders of her coaches, draped in the American flag as an Olympic champion. At just 22 years old, she was now the latest Olympic champion in women’s surfing