Kiwi Surfers Olympic Campaign Ends in ParisKiwi Surfers Olympic Campaign Ends in Paris On July 30th, 2024, New Zealand’s Olympic surfing campaign concluded in Tahiti, French Polynesia. Billy Stairmand and Saffi Vette represented the country, having secured their spots at the 2023 International Surfing Association World Games. Round 1 In the opening round, Stairmand faced off against Brazilian surfer Joao Chianca and Moroccan charger Ramzi Boukhiam. Despite his efforts, Stairmand advanced to Round 2, along with Boukhiam. Vette competed against Yolanda Erostarbe of Spain and Siqi Yang of China. She also advanced to Round 2 after finishing with a solid performance. Round 2 Vette faced Yolanda Hopkins of Portugal in her Round 2 match. With limited waves and challenging winds, Vette fell short of Hopkins and finished in 17th place overall. Stairmand’s Olympic journey also concluded in Round 2. He competed against world champion Felipe Toledo of Brazil, who ultimately claimed the higher score and defeated Stairmand in a nail-biting heat. Closing Ceremony Saffi and Billy will join the New Zealand team in Paris for the remainder of the Games and participate in the closing ceremony. New Zealand Olympic Team New Zealand will be represented by around 180 athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The team will compete in various sports, including equestrian sports, rowing, rugby sevens, swimming, and athletics.
Date: 30/07/2024
Kiwi Surfers Olympic campaign comes to an end
Surfing’s second Olympic Games appearance officially kicked off this week in Tahiti, French Polynesia, with Billy Stairmand and Saffi Vette representing New Zealand. The duo secured their Olympic spots with strong performances at the 2023 International Surfing Association World Games in El Salvador.
Paris was the second Olympic Games for the eight-time national Stairmand champion, who finished 9the in Tokyo, the first New Zealander to ever compete in surfing at the Olympics. Speaking to the NZOC beforehand, he said: “It’s incredible to be going to my second Olympics, I’m super proud”. “I’m excited to be representing New Zealand again and I know I can do something special there.”
Saffi Vette, on the other hand, would be participating in the Olympic Games for the first time.
“It’s a dream come true; I followed the Olympics as a kid but never thought surfing would be involved. It’s an amazing opportunity to be amongst so many great athletes and it’s quite an achievement for a girl from Gisborne.”
An extension of the Opening Ceremony festivities in Paris, France, took place on the coast of Tahiti, where 48 surfers, 24 men and 24 women from 21 countries, gathered in Papara to celebrate the start of the 33rd edition of the Games. They joined their national Olympic teams in Paris remotely.
The traditional ISA ‘Sands of the World’ ceremony followed, with Saffi Vette, supported by Billy, pouring out the sand for New Zealand, a symbol of the peaceful coming together of the world’s nations through surfing. ISA President Aguerre concluded the ceremony by pouring sand from Rio de Janeiro, the location where it was first announced that surfing would be included in the Olympic Games, along with a shell from Ichinomiya Beach in Japan, where surfing made its Olympic debut as part of Tokyo 2020.
With the formalities completed and the event more than 15,000 kilometres away from the host city, Olympic surfing made its debut at Paris 2024 on a fantastic first day of competition with 1.20 to 1.80 metre sea waves and hardly any wind.
The intimidating reef of one of the world’s most dangerous waves saw round 1 of the men’s and women’s complete with both Billy and Saffi taking to the water. There would be no eliminations with the Olympic format seeing the top spot in each heat advance to round 3 and the remaining two surfers reseeded to round 2.
Billy took to the water in Heat 5 against Brazilian big wave surfer Joao Chianca and Moroccan Charger Ramzi Boukhiam. Stairmand held his own with the heavyweights of the surfing world, posting a 3.33 on the board with a nice backhand tube, but with only a backup of 2.2 he needed some magic, which the ocean didn’t give him. Chianca showed his experience on the wave and found 7 scores, putting together a 5.6 and a 4.4 to take the win. Boukhiam also found a 4.9 and a 4.8 to join Stairmand in Round 2.
The most anticipated Olympic debut would come with Saffi Vette taking on Nadia Erostarbe of Spain and Siqi Yang of China in Heat 7 of the women’s first round. Erostarbe put in a dominant performance, finding 5 waves, including an 8.33 and a 6.33, to take the win. Vette looked comfortable finding a nice backhand tube for a 4.73, supported by a smaller 2.77. Siqi Yang didn’t find a score to speak of, but didn’t hold back and charged into extremely heavy waves without hesitation. With this first round performance, Saffi would move on to her second round match in Heat 6 against Yolanda Hopkins.
It was Caroline Marks who, in a dramatic take-off, slid under the lip into a huge tube and was spat out, resulting in a score of 9.43, the highest single wave score of the day for the women. Her two-wave heat total of 17.93 was the highest of the day.
In the men’s event, American Griffin Colapinto achieved the highest score of the day in one wave, 9.53, while John John gave a masterclass, achieving a total of 17.33 in two waves, the highest mark of the day for the men.
On day 2 the pressure was turned up a notch as elimination came into play. By the end of the day 16 surfers had dropped out of the event thanks to the three to five foot waves on offer and a wild mix of winds that varied throughout the day. This combination can only be described as challenging for many surfers with big lulls, gusts and then some diamonds in between the rough.
Saffi Vette would once again take to the water in her head to head Round 2 matchup against Portuguese surfer Yolanda Hopkins. It was a disappointing heat for the girls with big lulls and challenging winds forcing the surfers to search for anything resembling a wave. Hopkins found a 3.67 and a 1.0 to take the win, Vette found just a pair of .6s, to take 2nd place, withdrawing from the event in 17e position.
In the final heat of the day, Billy Stairmand took to the water for the final time in the event with the silver fern on his shoulder, against WSL superstarter Felipe Toledo of Brazil. In a heat that started slowly and quickly gathered momentum, it was Toledo who held strong and claimed the highest heat total of the day with a 9.67 and a 7.33 for a total of 17.0, beating Stairmand in a nail-biting heat.
“That’s been the strategy since I woke up this morning,” Toledo said in his post-heat interview. “Give him a little hassle early on, get that inside position and don’t leave that inside position until I get a good score. I ended up getting the 7 and then Billy (Stairmand) made it an 8 and I was like, oh man, here we go. And then when I got the right of way, I was like, okay, I’m not leaving the lineup until I get a bomb and that bomb came my way, and yeah, I’m just blessed to get that barrel and the win.”
Stairmand fought back with an 8.17 and looked to regain control. However, as Toledo found his rhythm in the slow conditions and showed why he is world champion, the 5.83 that Billy eventually found was not enough and so Billy retired from the event.
Saffi and Billy now head to Paris to join the team for the remainder of the event and to attend the closing ceremony.
About the NZ team
NZ will take on the world at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Around 180 athletes from the New Zealand team will compete in the Games, with the beautiful city of Paris hosting 10,500 athletes from 206 countries.
The Games are expected to be a spectacular event, with competitions taking place at the Palace of Versailles, beneath the Eiffel Tower, in the Stade de France and around landmarks such as Les Invalides, Place de la Concorde, Hotel de Ville and along the Seine.
The Zeeland team will once again shine in sports such as equestrian sports, rowing, rugby sevens,
swimming, canoeing, sailing, athletics, cycling and more, while New Zealanders can try out the action of incredible new urban sports including skateboarding, sport climbing, breakn and 3×3 basketball.
Ends
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