The 2024 U.S. Olympic surfing team will consist of five athletes, and medal hopes will be high. Find out more about the quintet headed to Tahiti to represent Team USA.
For a full list of athletes who have qualified for Paris 2024, check out our article on Olympic surfing qualification.
Caroline Marks
Fresh off winning her first world title last year, 22-year-old Caroline Marks enters this year's Olympic Games as a strong gold-medal contender. Her 2023 season included a victory at the WSL (World Surf League) stop in Tahiti, where the Olympic competition will take place. Marks narrowly missed out on a medal at the Tokyo Games three years ago, losing to Japan's Amuro Tsuzuki in the bronze-medal heat.
Carissa Moore
Three years after winning the inaugural gold medal in women's surfing, Carissa Moore remains one of the favorites as she makes her return to the Olympics. Moore, 31, is a five-time world champion and finished second behind teammate Marks on last year's WSL Championship Tour. After the 2024 Olympic Games, Moore has announced that she will step away from competitive surfing as she plans to start a family, though the Hawaii native left the door open for a possible return ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Caity Simmers
By having the highest-ranked women's team at the 2022 ISA World Surfing Games, the U.S. earned a third quota spot for the women's Olympic contest. That spot will go to 18-year-old Caity Simmers, a rising star in the world of surfing and a first-time Olympian. Simmers finished fourth in the 2023 WSL Championship Tour rankings, and her runner-up finish at the WSL stop in Tahiti satisfied the criteria for being awarded the third spot on the team. She started this season off in winning fashion, emerging victorious at the prestigious Pipe Pro contest, which was held in February at Hawaii's Banzai Pipeline.
Griffin Colapinto
After several years of steady improvement, Griffin Colapinto finished third in the 2023 WSL Championship Tour rankings, earning him a spot at the upcoming Olympic Games. The 25-year-old has had a strong start to the current season, winning the Rip Curl Pro Portugal in March and taking over as the overall leader in the world rankings. Paris 2024 will mark Colapinto's Olympic debut.
John John Florence
John John Florence, 31, will make his second Olympic appearance. The two-time world champion (2016, 2017) sustained a knee injury a few months before the last Olympics and was subsequently eliminated in the Round of 16 at those Games. However, the popular Hawaiian looks to be back in form ahead of this summer's competition. Through the first three events of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour season, Florence currently sits second behind teammate Colapinto in the overall rankings.
