The young French surfer Vahine Fierro has qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will take place on her spot in Tahiti, by reaching the finals of the Worlds organized in El Salvador, we learned Wednesday from the French Surfing Federation.
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Fierro, 23, climbed into the final draw on Tuesday at the end of the heats, automatically winning the qualifying quota reserved for the best European surfer in the competition. "I've accomplished what I've been working for for two years. This morning I cried from stress. Just now, when I found out I had qualified for the Games, I cried tears of joy," Fierro said in a statement sent to AFP.
Vahine Fierro LINCOLN FEAST/REUTERS
Reunion's Johanne Defay also finished in the final draw, alongside Australia's Sally Fitzgibbons and Brazil's Tatiana Weston Webb, but the only French woman in the World Surf League -the pro circuit-, had already qualified for the Olympics.
« I'm going to do the Olympics at home! I couldn't have asked for anything better. Teahupoo is a place that gave me my best waves »
Vahine Fierro
In the imposing waves of El Salvador's "Surf City", the two Frenchwomen shone a year before the Olympic event that will take place on the fearsome spot of Teahupoo in Tahiti, where Fierro has been training for several years.
«
I'm going to do the Olympics at home! I couldn't have asked for anything better. Teahupoo is a place that gave me my best waves (..) I will be surrounded by the people I love, the country that made me become who I am," she said.
Vahine Fierro LINCOLN FEAST/REUTERS
During the stage of the World Surf League organized last year on the mythical wave, where she was invited, the native of Uturoa had reached the semifinals, her best result in her career.
On the men's side, Frenchman Kauli Vaast, from Tahiti and 11th before the repechages on Wednesday, could still hope to qualify by finishing ahead of Spain's Gonzalo Gutierrez.