Team USA's Caroline Marks advanced to the women's surfing semifinals at the 2024 Paris Games, while U.S. reigning Olympic champion Carissa Moore was eliminated from the competition.
In waters off the coast of Teahupo'o, Tahiti, Marks defeated Australia's Tyler Wright in the rescheduled quarterfinals on Thursday night after the event was suspended for two days due to weather.
Marks, a native of Melbourne Beach, Florida, earned a 4.00 on her first wave and a 3.77 on her fifth wave for a total score of 7.77, beating Wright's overall score of 5.37.
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Marks' victory set up the potential for Team USA to make up half of the semifinal field. But Moore, who won the first-ever Olympic women's surfing gold at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games, was then bounced by France's Johanne Defay. Defay won the quarterfinal matchup over Moore by a score of 10.34 to 6.50.
Olympic surfing semifinals set
Marks and Defay will square off in the semifinal round with a spot in the final on the line. The 22-year-old Marks finished one spot off the podium in Tokyo and will now look to retain the gold for Team USA.
The other semifinal matchup will be between Brazil's Tatiana Weston-Webb and Costa Rica's Brisa Hennessy.
On the men's side, Peru's Alonso Correa will meet France's Kauli Vaast in the semifinals, while Brazil's Gabriel Medina will face Australia's Jack Robinson.
When are the next surfing events at the 2024 Olympics?
The surfing semifinals and medal finals for both the women's and men's competitions are slated to take place on Saturday, Aug. 3 starting at 1 p.m. ET.
Where is Olympic surfing being held?
The surfing competitions are being held thousands of miles away from Paris in Teahupo'o, Tahiti. Tahiti is part of French Polynesia, which is a semi-autonomous territory of France.
How does scoring work in Olympic surfing?
Surfing features a panel of five judges who score an athlete's wave ride on a scale from 1-10 in 0.01 increments. For each wave ride, the highest and lowest scores are thrown out. The average of the three remaining scores gives an athlete their total for that single ride.
A surfer's two best rides are then added together to reach a final score.
