Breaking: “Lucky” Leonardo Fioravanti appears set to be Olympic alternate for France, South Africa and Japan after qualifying for Italy ahead of Tokyo Games!

International man!

An international bombshell just exploded across the surf world as it appears that Leonardo Fioravanti is set to be Olympic alternate for France, South Africa and Japan after qualifying for his home country Italy.

That is three more countries than 11x World Champion Kelly Slater is alternate for, not to mention the fact that Fioravanti is already heading to Tokyo via Roma.

“Lucky” Leo’s relationship with Japan and South Africa is, currently, unclear.

His step-father lives in France though is Australian.

Per the International Surfing Association’s explanation of Surfing in Tokyo 2020: Reallocation of Unused Qualification Places

The processes in place to replace a qualified athlete for Tokyo 2020 should they not be able to compete in the Games are as follows:

If a quota place allocated is not confirmed by the National Olympic Committee (NOC) by the June 21 deadline for confirmation or is declined by the NOC, the quota place will be reallocated to the next highest ranked athlete not yet qualified at the respective event, respecting the maximum quota places of two surfers per gender per NOC.

If the athlete qualified through ISA Continental Qualifying Event – 2019 ISA World Surfing Games and/or Pan American Games 2019 – the quota place will be reallocated to next highest ranked athlete in the respective event provided the athletes are within the ISA quality control ranking (top 30). If no available athlete from the continents finish within the ISA quality control ranking, the place will be allocated to the next best ranked athlete, not yet qualified, regardless of the continent.

The deadline for the Final Entries list of participating athletes in the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (sport entries deadline) is 5 July 2021 at 23:59 Japan time (UTC+9).

After the sport entries deadline, where there are medical conditions preventing participation of an athlete, proven Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV), a positive COVID-19 test, isolation or quarantine due to a COVID-19 infection or other exceptional reasons, the IOC, after consultation with the relevant IF and IOC medical experts (when deemed appropriate by the IOC), may authorize a permanent replacement of an athlete by another athlete only in the same sport and discipline and event provided the reallocation is complete prior to Surfing’s Technical Meeting, which is scheduled to take place at the surfing venue in Tokyo on July 24th at 3pm local time.

For surfing, in which the quota place is allocated to an athlete by name, the reallocation procedure will be initiated in accordance with the approved Qualification System for surfing. In this case, replacement athletes must meet the eligibility conditions and qualification criteria, must have been registered on the NOC’s ‘Long List’ of athletes eligible to serve as replacements, and must have no doping control issues pending.

Very cool.

World peace through Leonardo Fioravanti or am I somehow parsing that top list wrong? I’ll be honest, I haven’t read all the text that follows but assume it says something like “Leonardo Fioravanti can surf for Italy, Japan, South Africa and France assuming enough surfers get hurt.”

What if he wins gold, silver and bronze?

First time in Olympic history?

Kelly Slater very sad.

Joe Rogan, likely, indifferent.