Ten men and eight women from WSL CT will represent seven countries in Surfing’s Olympic debut
With the 2019 Billabong Pipe Masters and Lululemon Maui Pro closing out the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour (WSL CT) season for the men and women respectively, 18 surfers that have qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games have been determined.

Fresh off a WSL Title, USA’s Carissa Moore will head to Tokyo 2020 to be among the first crop of Olympic surfers in history. Photo: ISA / Ben Reed
The 2019 WSL CT awards ten qualification slots for men and eight for women, with a limit of two surfers per gender per nation.
The provisionally qualified surfers are as follows:
Men (10):
Jordy Smith (RSA)
Kolohe Andino (USA)
John John Florence (USA)
Kanoa Igarashi (JPN)
Jeremy Flores (FRA)
Michel Bourez (FRA)
Gabriel Medina (BRA)
Italo Ferreira (BRA)
Owen Wright (AUS)
Julian Wilson (AUS)
Women (8):
Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS)
Stephanie Gilmore (AUS)
Johanne Defay (FRA)
Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA)
Silvana Lima (BRA)
Carissa Moore (USA)
Caroline Marks (USA)
Brisa Hennessy (CRC)

As teammates at the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games, Italo Ferreira took Gold and Gabriel Medina took Bronze for Team Brazil. Now they will reunite as teammates on the world’s greatest sporting stage at Tokyo 2020. Photo: ISA / Pablo Jimenez
They 18 aforementioned surfers will join the four men and four women who qualified for Tokyo 2020 via the 2019 ISA World Surfing Games and the man and woman who qualified via the Lima 2019 Panamerican Games to make a total of 28 of 40 slots confirmed. See the full summary of athletes in the chart below.
The remaining twelve slots will be contested at the 2020 ISA World Surfing Games to take place in May 2020, location to be announced. The top five eligible men and top seven eligible women will round out the field of competitors to compete at the Olympic venue of Tsurigasaki beach in 2020.
All earned slots are provisional until a final announcement after the closing of the 2020 ISA World Surfing Games and subject to nomination by the respective NOC and meeting the ISA Olympic Eligibility Requirements.
ISA President Fernando Aguerre said:
“I’m very excited to see the lineup of top talent of Olympic Surfers that will compete in the Tokyo Games. We will have the world’s best athletes with a wide range of geographic representation. They will showcase surfing for the largest audience to ever set eyes on a surfing competition.
“Now at the ISA we will hone on the 2020 World Surfing Games, the most anticipated edition in history, as it will award the final twelve slots for the Olympic Games.”
For more information on the Surfing qualification process for Tokyo 2020, click here.
Tokyo 2020 Qualification Update:
Men | Women |
|
---|---|---|
2019 World Surf League Championship Tour | Jordy Smith (RSA) Kolohe Andino (USA) John John Florence (USA) Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) Jeremy Flores (FRA) Michel Bourez (FRA) Gabriel Medina (BRA) Italo Ferreira (BRA) Owen Wright (AUS) Julian Wilson (AUS) | Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) Johanne Defay (FRA) Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) Silvana Lima (BRA) Carissa Moore (USA) Caroline Marks (USA) Brisa Hennessy (CRC) |
2020 ISA World Surfing Games (May 2020) | 5 slots TBD | 7 slots TBD |
2019 ISA World Surfing Games | Shun Murakami (JPN) Ramzi Boukhiam (MAR) Billy Stairmand (NZL) Frederico Morais (POR) | Shino Matsuda (JPN) Anat Lelior (ISR) Bianca Buitendag (RSA) Ella Williams (NZL) |
Lima 2019 Pan Am Games | Lucca Mesinas (PER) | Daniella Rosas (PER) |
Total | 20 men | 20 women |
The International Surfing Association (ISA), founded in 1964, is recognized by the International Olympic Committee as the World Governing Authority for Surfing. The ISA governs and defines Surfing as Shortboard, Longboard & Bodyboarding, StandUp Paddle (SUP) Racing and Surfing, Para Surfing, Bodysurfing, Wakesurfing, and all other wave riding activities on any type of waves, and on flat water using wave riding equipment. The ISA crowned its first Men’s and Women’s World Champions in 1964. It crowned the first Big Wave World Champion in 1965; World Junior Champion in 1980; World Kneeboard Champions in 1982; World Longboard Surfing and World Bodyboard Champions in 1988; World Tandem Surfing Champions in 2006; World Masters Champions in 2007; World StandUp Paddle (SUP, both surfing and racing) and Paddleboard Champions in 2012; and World Para Surfing Champions in 2015.
ISA membership includes the surfing National Federations of 108 countries on five continents. The ISA is presided over by Fernando Aguerre (ARG). The Executive Committee includes four Vice-Presidents Karín Sierralta (PER), Kirsty Coventry (ZIM), Casper Steinfath (DEN) and Barbara Kendall (NZL), Athletes’ Commission Chair Justine Dupont (FRA), Regular Members Atsushi Sakai (JPN) and Jean Luc Arassus (FRA) and ISA Executive Director Robert Fasulo as Ex-officio Member.
Its headquarters are located in La Jolla, California (USA).
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