Shock Rebuff For Para-surfing Advocate Kelly Slater After Sport Denied Entry To LA Olympics

“When I heard it didn’t get in, I was shocked. Not just for my career, but for all the other athletes as well."

About a month back, just before the Paris Games lit up and before the sixteen-hour reign of Filipe Toledo at Teahupoo, Kelly Slater led the push to get para-surfing into the LA 2028 Olympics.

In a piece to camera posted on Instagram, Slater appeared alongside five-times para-surfing world champ Victoria Feige, the gorgeous face of para-surfing who would up in a chair when she busted her back after a snowboard jump went bad.

The pair were chasing ten thousand signatures to help convince the IOC the sport had legs, so to speak, and crushed the target amassing almost 19,000 signatures.

Still, no dice with the Los Angeles 2028 Organising Committee (LA28) who, today, shut down the sport for 2028.

“When I heard it didn’t get in, I was shocked. Not just for my career, but for all the other athletes as well. We pushed for over five years to get into the Paris Olympics,” another para-surfing world champ Liv Stone told AP. “Then Paris came and we’re weren’t there … I realized we need to keep pushing.”

A real bummer.

“We are, of course, disappointed in this news, but as surfers when we miss a wave, we turn and paddle just as hard for the next one, and we will do the same now with the hope of seeing Para Surfing included in Brisbane in 2032,” the ISA’s prez Fernando Aguerre said in a statement.

“Para surfers are amazing athletes, full of hope and resilience in the face of life’s challenges. We take inspiration from their love of this sport, and reaffirm our commitment to them and to this sport. Just as was the case with Olympic surfing, we will continue to advocate and promote Para Surfing as being worthy of a place on the highest para-sport stage – the Paralympic Games.”