But who will Teahupo'o?
The dark night is back(ish). Minutes ago, former World Surf League champion and dogged competitor Gabriel Medina took out Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhaim and France’s Kauli Vaast plus Joan Duru to win the International Surfing Association’s World Surfing Games. The victory hands Brazil a third Olympic slot, on the men’s side, giving the proud nation of order and progress a legitimate shot at victory in Teahupo’o.
Before the World Surfing Games, held in the U.S. protectorate of Puerto Rico, Brazilian surf fans were rubbing their foreheads in dismay. Their two qualifiers, Joao Chianca and Filipe Toledo, limping down the back stretch toward Tahiti with potential problems. Chianca, brave and skilled, has been injured since a horrible accident at Pipeline and is yet to surf in an event this year. Toledo so scared of bigger surf that he pulled out of competition entirely.
The brightest analytical minds are, currently, sorting through the data to see which Brazilian will lay claim to the third Olympic slot as the qualification rules and regulations are more difficult to sort than the formula for cold fusion.
Is it Medina because he won the World Surfing Games?
Is it Italo Ferreira, previous gold medalist, since he is currently the top ranked Brazilian?
Do you know?
Do you have a doctorate in theoretical physics?
Please weigh in below. There’s also job at Surf Ranch for you. Winning at life.
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frout loops or wheaties?
I think they have to put a cap on how many competitors a country can enter in any sport otherwise say in Marathon you’d have Kenya with like 10 runners and the rest would be from Ethiopia and that would be it.
It all depends on how many heats they think they can churn through at an Olympic games. LA and Brisbane should be pretty easy to accommodate more than a pool of 24 competitors and hence increase the quota to say 3 per NOC instead of 2. But geez if Teahupoo is anything above tiny it would probably be better to have a field of 16. I mean some of these kids ranked way down order might not catch a wave and could even die if they try.
Edit: oh I see what you are getting at: The NOC should get to decide which 2 surfers go. Now I got ya. That makes sense. There was a scandal last Olympics when the UK team chose the 1st and 3rd fastest runners in female marathon (I think). 3rd fastest had run in the previous olympics or won a world title or something so they picked her instead.
But a lot of the Olympic sports have minimum olympic qualifying times. Not sure how you could do that in surfing unless you dumb it right down and say must be on the CT or (say) top 10 in the QS. But that gets messy quick when 75% of the tour come from 3 countries.
You two can get together and suck your clitics.
This is great news. A win for surfing, it’s many administrators and surf fans globally.
It only takes 47 repechage heats at a Central American boardriders comp and or 2 years on a non-elimination tour where you don’t have to make the final five or not really and have defected from your country of origin to make an Olympic champion.
now that everyone has learned to spell REPACHAGE correctly I just feel that’s a win in itself.
REPOCHARGE!
Repo charge!
Xox
Yeah, Medina is truly a dark “night”.
Rock paper scissors. It’s the only way.
Rock paper scissors/Soggy biscuit hybrid battle!
Xox
should be made into a naff tattoo
The dark night
Could you possibly mean
The dark Knight?
Social Medina
Hawaii, the home of the expat surfer.
yet unlike others, you’re aware of your lack of knowledge.
It would be absurd for that third spot to go to someone other than Gabriel Medina. Gabby has to be the overall favorite to win Teahupoo. Brazil would be throwing away a gold medal to give that spot to someone else. While the Olympics would be excluding hands down one of the best athletes to ever do it at that spot (and he’s still in his prime). Ridiculous that the decision has yet to be settled.
Its the Olympics therefore a sport. So who qualified though the systems in place is the fairest way. It’s this way or they’d be wheeling out Kelly and those with the biggest social media presence like Nathan Florence or worse JOB to “grow” the sport.
I definitely agree that the system should decide. But if it’s a clear systemic decision, why don’t they know who’s got the spot yet? All the commentators were saying that through the system if Brazil won, which ever Brazilian placed further ahead in this comp would get the spot. Seems like if the system was more transparent, people would understand WTF is going on by now. Is it a PR fail by the ISA or is there a lack of clarity and room for interpretation within the rules?
Each NOC gets to set their own criteria for the third spot. This is why surfing usa put out their critetia: whoever finishes higer at last year’s teahupoo comp.
A cynic would say this was specifically to give kel a chance because he was too far behind in the rankings for it to just be “third higest ranked us surfer”
If kelly had finished highest he would have been at the wsg instead of barron (who made the semis last year).
I dare say surfing brasil has made their criteria already, just might be hard to find unless you can speak Portuguese
Interesting the commentators weren’t educated in those differences between NOC’s (I have no idea what an NOC is, LOL. Another thing commentators could have educated viewers on). But the U.S. going for the best placing person at Chopes makes all the sense in the world, even if it potentially benefited Ke11y. It’ll be interesting to see how Brazils rules play out. Medina didn’t seem to know.
One other interesting thing is that it’s not controversial that small surf was being used to decide who qualifies for the Olympics at a wave of consequence.
National Olympic Committee (I think!)
If you go down the rabbit warren of the convoluted qualifying process without blowing a gasket in your brain, it’s all spelt out but damn it’s a hard slog. And if you reckon that’s hard wait until you see the criteria for the universality place!
LOL, I think I’ll pass on trying to wrap my head around any of that. God I’d hate to be stuck under fluorescent office lights in a meeting somewhere designing that convoluted qualification process. I’m guessing the more convoluted, ridiculous, and hard to understand it is, the more job security the people that draw it up create for themselves.
If there is one thing we can all depend on, it’s a fair, transparent and honest Brazilian process via a Olympic Committee!
Kels chinese girlfriend qualified?
Can’t be italo because he did not surf in world surfing games this year.
that sounds like a very good, direct, simple point that would be consistent with everything else we’ve heard about needing to surf in this contest — but inconsistent with the reality that the ISA makes everything more insanely complicated than necessary.
Not one.
Marco Polo https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Haha reverse asterisk!
Xox
Felipe would end up in Last Place in Any Women’s Heat
lulu
the spot goes to the first person who gets to tahiti and puts his jacket on the bed,,,,
Classic rules.
*jacks off on the bed.
Xox