Paris 2024 Olympics: French surfer falls and injures her head on her first wave, she will have to go through the repechage

La Réunionnaise Johanne Defay doit passer par les repêchages. XinHua – BEN THOUARD

Vahine Fierro and Joan Duru give the French team a great start in Teahupoo. 

The French Vahine Fierro and Joan Duru finished first in their series on Saturday and qualified for the round of 16, on the first day of the Olympic surfing events in Teahupo'o (Tahiti). Reunion Island's Johanne Defay, slightly injured in the head after a fall on her first wave, and Tahitian Kauli Vaast, will have to go through the repechages.

“I woke up this morning with butterflies in my stomach, I was so excited”, said Vahine Fierro after her victory (11.17), in a series where her opponents did not manage to score more than three points on a wave.

Finding the right wave

“Teahupo”o, it's a wave that made me grow in every sense of the word, mentally, physically, emotionally, in everyday life and in surfing”, added, smiling and moved, the Polynesian surfer. Very comfortable on her wave, she won the Tahiti Pro last May and is the favorite in the women's table.

The first Frenchman to qualify, the captain of the French team Joan Duru found a deep tube in the final minute of his series to win narrowly (13.84 against 13.36) against one of the favorites, the Australian Jack Robinson, winner on the same wave at the Tahiti Pro 2023.

The Americans have made their mark

Joan Duru was playing his series early in the morning in Tahiti, at the time when the French rugby sevens team won its gold medal at the other end of the world. “We are really lucky to be here, I still don't feel any pressure, I'm hallucinating”, he said laughing after his performance.

"The first series is often the hardest, it was complicated, I was overwhelmed with emotions", admitted Kauli Vaast (13.63), for whom "the competition begins now". The Americans made their mark by achieving the two best men's scores of the day on a wave: Griffin Colapinto with 9.53 and John John Florence with 9.33.

Their teammates Carissa Moore, Caroline Marks and Caitlin Simmers also dominate their series. The Brazilians, other favorites, are struggling more: if Gabriel Medina and Joao Chianca won from the start, other headliners like Filipe Toledo and Tatiana Weston-Webb will pass through the drafts.

The fearsome jaw of Hava'e"

The surfers are decided based on the added scores of their two best waves, each being evaluated out of ten. In the first round, non-eliminatory, three surfers compete for 30 minutes. The "Hava'e" jaw, modest at the start of the day, sometimes kept its promises with well-formed tubes of around two meters.

These good conditions should continue on Sunday for the repechage, but a worsening of the weather is expected at the start of the week. The competition director may choose to suspend it for a few days. The final will be played no later than August 5.