LOWER TRESTLES, San Clemente, California (Saturday, September 9, 2023) - Caroline Marks (USA) has provisionally qualified through the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour (CT) to represent her country at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Marks' performance at the Rip Curl WSL Finals today has solidified her place as one of the top two American women on the WSL Rankings, ensuring her provisional qualification for next year's Olympic Games. This will not be her first time representing the United States of America in the Olympics, having competed at Tokyo 2020, surfing's inaugural appearance as an Olympic sport.
Born and raised in Melbourne Beach, Florida, Marks grew up watching her brothers surf. She discovered her love of the sport and began surfing competitively at eight. Her natural talent and competitive drive propelled her to early success, becoming the youngest surfer to claim a spot on the Women's CT at just 16 years old. In her first season, Marks' was named Rookie of the Year and finished the 2018 tour ranked seventh in the world. The goofy-footer phenom solidified her status as one of surfing's Next-Gen stars, beating eight-time World Champion Stephanie Gilmore and five-time World Champion Carissa Moore to claim her first CT win at the Boost Mobile Pro Gold Coast in 2019. That same season Marks qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where she lost the Bronze Medal battle to Amuro Tsuzuki (JPN). Having made the Olympic quarterfinals, she returned a revered competitor. Marks' 2023 season has been her best yet, finishing with a 3rd place or better finish in six of the ten events, and winning two. She is now surfing for the World Title.
Surfing will return to the Summer Olympic Games after making its 2020 Olympic debut in Tokyo. The competition will be held on the French Polynesian island of Tahiti. Teahupo'o, the iconic Tahitian wave, will be familiar to the WSL surfers as it is a featured stop on the WSL CT.
The WSL CT, a year-long tour that crowns World Champions, is surfing's tier-one qualifier for the 2024 Olympic Games. WSL will provisionally qualify the first ten men and eight women for Paris 2024, with seven women having already provisionally qualified this year. Carissa Moore (USA), Tyler Wright (AUS), Molly Picklum (AUS), Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA), Johanne Defay (FRA), Teresa Bonvalot (PRT), and Brisa Hennessy (CRC) will have an opportunity to represent their countries at the 2024 Olympics. Learn more about Surfing's Olympic Qualification process here.
Watch highlights from Marks performance at the Rip Curl WSL Finals Marks on WorldSurfLeague.com, the WSL's YouTube channel, and the free WSL app. Check out more ways to watch from the WSL's broadcast partners here.