By Philip O’Connor
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Winning the first Olympic gold medal in surfing might have been a high watermark for some, but for Carissa Moore it has done little to dampen her competitive hunger as she aims for a sixth World Surf League title in California this week.
The affable Hawaiian hall-of-famer is never slow to smile or laugh, but beneath it all is a burning desire to be the best in a sport that has become even more visible since making its Olympic debut in Tokyo a year ago.
“I’m definitely competitive, like I want to win — when that horn blows, there’s that part of me that wants to play the game hard with all the other women do on tour,” the 30-year-old told Reuters in a video interview.
“There’s this nice contentment now in what I’ve achieved and not feeling like I need to need this win, but it’s more like, I just really want to win, and I want to perform well.”
Her 2021 clean sweep of the WSL title and the Olympic gold medal put her in the public eye like never before.
“I definitely saw an increase in followers and interest on Instagram, (I was) travelling and interacting with people that I never would have thought knew surfing or would watch surfing, and they were like, oh, they knew my name. And I thought that was pretty cool,” Moore said.
In the past season women got to compete at Teahupo’o in Tahiti, the beach that will be the venue for the 2024 Olympic competition but previously had been considered too dangerous for female competitors.
“It is definitely a very intimidating wave. It’s something that I like you have to see in person, because just seeing it via a TV screen, or a phone screen, or a computer screen just does not do it justice,” Moore explained.
BIG BARREL
“It’s a wonder of the world, how it just comes in over this reef and it surges. And there’s this big barrel, and it’s crazy… there’s a lot of consequence in a wave like that, but it’s really, really exciting if you get a good one.”
When asked if she intends to surf it to defend her Olympic title, Moore points to the strength of the competition in American surfing at the moment, and says it is by no means a given she will be chosen to attend.
“I’d love to be a part of the Olympics. But I have some work to make that, I have some work to do if I want to, (but) I want to be there,” she said.
For now, she has the WSL finals to look forward to starting on Thursday at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California, where she once again expects the surfing to put on a show for the global audience.
“You will be glued to your screen from sunup to sundown, and it’ll be eight hours of really great actions, because all of the athletes left in the event — there are five men, five women — they wouldn’t be there if they weren’t incredibly talented, driven, competitive,” she said.
“There’s some really great matchups and it’ll be fun, I just I love the head-to-head matchups all the way through and it looks like there’ll be some really good swell on offer, so lots of good surfing.”
(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
