On a calm day for waves at the Teahupo’o break in Tahiti, American Caroline Marks outlasted Brazilian Tatiana Weston-Webb to claim the gold medal in the women’s surfing final at the Olympic Games.
The drama of the competition continued until time ran out, as the athletes awaited the final verdict of Weston-Webb, who failed to beat Marks.
In the final, competitors had 35 minutes to post two high scores, judged by a panel of 10 international judges. The highest and lowest scores on each surf are discarded. The surfers’ two highest scores are combined on a scale of 0 to 10 and the highest total score wins.
With sets spaced closely together at the start of the final, none of the surfers attempted to catch a wave until the 24th minute of the competition, and none scored better than 0.5.
Minutes later, Marks secured the first significant score of the final with a successful barrel ride with 17 minutes remaining, putting pressure on Weston-Webb to score. The ride earned a score of 7.5 from the judges and ultimately proved to be the difference for the gold medal.
Weston-Webb responded with a score of 5.83 in a run with nine minutes remaining. Less than two minutes later, Marks recorded her second successful run of the final. She didn’t catch any barrels, but replaced a secondary score of 1.43 with a 3.0 to take a 10.5-7.63 lead.
With two minutes remaining, Weston-Webb landed her second attempt, but failed to catch a tube. Time ran out and the surfers waited for the judges’ verdict on Weston-Webb’s second attempt. She needed a 4.68 to win. The attempt was 4.5, allowing Marks to win 10.5-10.33 and take the gold medal.
Marks, 22, claimed the gold medal after finishing off the podium in fourth place in Tokyo.
Marks reached the final after beating France’s Johanne Defay in the semi-final round on Monday morning. Weston-Webb overcame Brisa Hennessy of Costa in the other semi-final. Defay defeated Hennessy in the consolation match to secure bronze for hosts France.
In the men’s final, Tahitian Kauli Vaast took gold for France at his home surf spot, beating Australian Jack Robinson. Brazilian Gabriel Medina won bronze.