Fears for Aussie surf Olympian Tyler Wright after sudden withdrawal from Brazil event due to unspecified injury

“Tyler has been advised by her doctors and specialists that she needs treatment.”

The two-time world surfing champ Tyler Wright was a notable scratching from the Viva Oi Rio Pro, currently being played out in abominable conditions in Brazil. 

Thirty-year-old Tyler Wright, who pretty much gave up any hope of making the final five cut with her latest withdrawal, has a long history of illness and injury. 

Four months ago after advancing to the quarter finals in Portugal, Wright spoke of suffering from what was described as a perpetual suffocation. 

“I’ve had a fair few doctors and specialists tell me they don’t know how I do what I do. I found out that most of the time I’m under-oxygenated and semi-suffocating. My airways are too small basically, and over the off-season I had it expanded,” Wright explained. “Honestly it’s been life-changing, it’s the sanest I’ve ever felt. It’s really successful, it’s changing my life, but it’s also a process and that’s only step one and a half of a multi-step process.”

The process included seven screws drilled into her head. 

“So through the off-season I got a maxillary palatal expander [a device that widens the mouth] in. Essentially I’ve got seven screws in my head, between nine and 17 millimetres [in length] and in the off-season I expanded it. Essentially it popped the bone and I got seven millimetres [added airway space] through that.”

In 2018, Tyler and her brother Owen, then the world number eleven, quietly pulled out of their respective events at Jeffreys Bay.

Both cited a mysterious “African flu”. 

“Never thought the flu would stop me from competing….turns out I was very wrong.,” Tyler wrote on Instagram. “Influenza A is quite the catch, it wouldn’t leave me alone. Been out of it for a while now but had my first good day in about two weeks, still can’t do much and I’m about 8kg lighter.”

Last year, Wright unleashed on the “drastic and extreme circumstances” she was raised in” from the Wright’s patriarch Rob, the old boy now on the ropes, suffering from dementia and being cared for by her big brother Owen. 

“I experienced that and I worked with a psychologist for years to understand my relationship with surfing and understand how that was born, how it was really unhealthy for me,” Wright told Dave Prodan on his usually milquetoast podcast The Lineup. “I’m rebuilding a relationship with surfing because of the drastic and extreme circumstances that I was raised in…Look, this is not uncommon. Which is baffling for someone like me. If this is not uncommon, why don’t we have better solutions, better parenting programs, better informed industry? I’m not the first child this has happened to. I’m not the first child star this has happened to.”

That same year, her performance at the Surf Ranch event was diminished after a “horrible period” put her in hospital for three days prior to the event. 

“At times it’s deflating physically and emotionally, feeling like you have no say in it. Managing my period has been a journey. I’ve come along way from my teen years, not even knowing it wasn’t normal to suffer monthly excruciating pain that would lead to passing out, vomiting and hours on the toilet. These days my period management looks like a customised training program based around the 4 menstrual stages, listening and planning carefully for what my body needs – even if that means less time practicing in the water before comps, prioritising sleep and recovery leading up to my period and being aware this is the time I am at highest risk of injury.”

Wright, who won her first big event at fourteen and two consecutive world titles at twenty-two and twenty-three, has also revealed the struggle of being gay on the surf circuit,

“I’m the only queer person on tour, so my wife is the only other queer person I know most of the time. I love everyone around me but she makes such a difference in a way only she really can.”

According to a spokesperson for Tyler Wright, the latest scratching comes at the advice of medical professionals.

“Tyler has been advised by her doctors and specialists that she needs some treatment and would prefer her sitting out Brazil. Tyler will be 100% ready for the Olympics.”

Still, Surfing Australia has readied evergreen Sally Fitzgibbons to be on standby should Wright’s medical woes continue and, in the men, Ryan Callinan if either Ethan Ewing or Jack Robinson get belted and can’t compete.

“We have Sally Fitzgibbons and Ryan Callinan on standby with a fully flexible flight booked to arrive 24 hours prior to the event window,” Surfing Australia’s performance support and podium manager Eric Haakonssen told The Guardian. “If the event looks likely to start later in the window, we will adjust those flights to depart later just in case.”