Surfing in the Olympics: Athletes for neutrals to root for - the underdog, the locals and the comeback kid

Conventional sports like football tend to get the lion’s share of media coverage, so whenever a major competition rolls around the stories of many of the key players are already widely known: the defender who has fought to overcome an injury; the striker intent on avenging a recent defeat. As a result, these sports can come to seem as if they matter very much.

By contrast, sports like surfing, which are mostly ignored by the mainstream media, can seem to matter less. True, the sight of a human rocketing through the seething innards of a wave the size of a two-story house might be inherently more spectacular than the sight of someone kicking a ball between two sticks (not to mention a lot more dangerous), but if you have no prior knowledge of the rocketing human it’s hard to care about what happens to them. They might as well be a dolphin.

None of this is anybody’s fault – it’s just The Way Things Are. What it means in practical terms, though, is that when the surfing competition at this year’s Olympic Games gets under way on 27 July at Teahupo’o in Tahiti, it will be hard for most people watching at home to give a hoot, let alone two, about the outcome.

If the personalities involved were all a bit bland, and if their roads to the Games had all been unremarkable, then the ambivalence of much of the watching world wouldn't exactly be a tragedy. As it happens, though, several of the competitors about to risk life and limb over Teahupo’o’s razor-sharp reef in pursuit of Olympic glory have life stories that sound like deliberately over-the-top pitches for inspirational sports movies. So, if you're a neutral looking for somebody to root for next week, here are a few suggestions…

Siqi Yang, China Growing up on a farm in the mountainous area of Liangshan in China’s Sichuan Province, Siqi Yang didn’t even see the sea until she was nine, when her uncle introduced her to sailing in Haikou in the island province of Hainan. In 2018, when China established a national surfing team for the first time, Yang made the leap from sailing to surfing and progressed with almost unbelievable speed, making Round 7 of the 2023 World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico and booking herself an unlikely berth in the Olympics. Still only 15, and with no experience of surfing a wave of the size and amplitude of Teahupo’o, Yang will be precisely nobody’s favourite for a gold medal. However, although it might seem as if we’re straying dangerously close to Eddie the Eagle / Jamaican bobsleigh team territory here, Yang clearly has oodles of ability, plus the confidence of someone who can reportedly hold their breath for up to three minutes. Could she surprise everyone and nab a medal? Stranger things have happened at sea.

Brisa Hennessy, Costa Rica In early 2022, Hennessy started experiencing fatigue, headaches and what she describes as “brain fog”. In spite of this, she still managed to finish fourth in that year’s World Surf League standings, but the following season, as her health continued to deteriorate, she dropped off the tour. Then, in February 2023, she was diagnosed with a pituitary adenoma – a form of brain tumor, although in her case a non-cancerous one. The first doctor she saw advised her that she might have to have surgery; another told her that an operation could do more harm than good. In the end, she took a complete break from surfing, started taking a different medication to regulate her thyroid levels, and found other ways of dealing with the side-effects of her condition, including dietary changes. Impressively, at time of writing Hennessy is back on the WSL tour and ranked number three in the world, tumour in check, albeit under regular medical review. What better way to cap a remarkable comeback than with an Olympic medal?

Vahine Fierro and Kauli Vaast, both France These two Tahitians may not have the same level of competitive experience of some of the battle-hardened World Surf League pros they'll be up against, but what they lack in heat-surfing nous they more than make up for in terms of familiarity with the heaving barrels of Teahupo’o, their home break. They both have giant-killing form at the spot, too. Earlier this year, 24-year-old Fierro achieved a stunning result as a wildcard entry to the WSL Teahupo’o Pro, defeating some of the best women in the world to win the event in grinding 12-15 foot barrels. Meanwhile, 22-year-old Vaast finished second in the 2022 WSL men’s event, again as a wildcard. If the waves are in the ship-sinking range – and, at this time of year, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t be – then these two both have the potential to cause a major upset, not to mention a party that the village of Teahupo’o (population 1,455) will remember for years.