Olympic Surfing 2021: Medal Winners, Scores and Results
Carissa Moore of the United States and Italo Ferreira of Brazil took home surfing's top prizes in the sport's first-ever appearance at the Olympics.
Moore defeated South Africa's Bianca Buitendag 14.93 to 8.46 in the women's gold-medal match. Ferreira had no problems in his gold-medal match against Kanoa Igarashi, scoring an easy win, 15.14 to 6.60.
Women's Surfing Results
Gold: Carissa Moore (United States) def. Bianca Buitendag (South Africa), 14.93 to 8.46
Bronze: Amuro Tsuzuki (Japan) def. Caroline Marks (United States), 6.80 to 4.26
Men's Surfing Results
Gold: Italo Ferreira (Brazil) def. Kanoa Igarashi (Japan), 15.14 to 6.60
Bronze: Owen Wright (Australia) def. Gabriel Medina (Brazil), 11.97 to 11.77
The weather forecast led organizers to push the quarterfinals, semifinals and finals into one day. The medal matches were originally scheduled to be held Wednesday, but tropical storm Nepartak is expected to cause large rainfalls in the Tokyo area this week.
Despite some gloomy conditions early in the day, things started to clear up in time for the women's final.
A four-time champion on the ASP Women's World Tour, Moore further solidified her standing as the best surfer in the world with this performance.
"I feel super blessed, super fortunate. It's been an incredible experience," Moore told reporters after her win. "It's been a crazy couple of days, a little bit of a rollercoaster of emotions just trying to figure out the break, find my rhythm, learning how to trust myself without my family here."
The defining move of Moore's run was a two-turn combo that garnered a score of 7.33 to put her over the top for gold.
Things were also emotional on the men's side when Ferreira clinched the first gold medal for his country with a brilliant run on the waves.
It wasn't entirely smooth sailing for Ferreira on his run. He had to make a board change after his preferred choice broke on the first wave he hit.
"I broke my good board on my first wave. That board gives me good speed, the other one is more slow," Ferreira said after his win. "It's super hard out there, but I knew that there was a lot of opportunities around."
Despite not being able to have the board he wanted for the entire run, Ferreira made his backup work with spectacular results.
The host nation was given plenty of reasons to celebrate surfing's Olympic debut. Amuro Tsuzuki beat out Caroline Marks for bronze on the women's side.
Igarashi came up short in his run against Ferreira, but the 23-year-old still walked away from the Games with a silver medal around his neck.
