'This volition never happen again': For U.S. surfers, a surreal feel at Olympics
U.Due south. surfer Caroline Marks rides a wave during a preparation session at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach in Chiba Prefecture. (Francisco Seco / Associated Press)
By his ain count, Fernando Aguerre worked 22 years to go surfing added to the Olympics. And so when the kickoff of the twoscore Summer Games competitors striking the waves early Lord's day morn at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach in Chiba Prefecture, it was a special moment.
"It was a very emotional feeling for me," Aguerre said. "This will never happen over again. The first day of Olympic surfing."
Some of the surfers felt the same way.
"I never dreamed of surfing in the Olympics. Information technology was only until the terminal few years, when information technology got accepted into the Games, it really became a reality," said American Carissa Moore, a iv-time world champion, who won the commencement heat of Olympic competition.
"The other day I was walking through the check-in room and I saw the jersey. I was so excited to actually come across my name and the Olympic Rings on the bailiwick of jersey. It's a very special time to be a part of surfing and to be here on this world phase. I'thou very honored and I experience very fortunate."
The other three American qualifiers too avant-garde.
"It feels surreal to really put the Olympic jersey on," 19-yr-quondam Caroline Marks said. "I feel just and so proud and honored to be here and represent my state. It was really fun."
Kolohe Andino was the get-go U.S. surfer in the water, placing second in his heat to accelerate. He volition face teammate John John Florence, a two-time world champion, in a ane-on-one elimination oestrus Tuesday.
Ecuador'due south Dominic Barona marked surfing's Olympic debut by getting the rings tattooed on her wrist before leaving for Tokyo, although she had to wear a long-sleeve shirt effectually the house to keep it hush-hush from her mother.
"I got information technology because this is for life. We're the outset Olympic athletes in surfing, so I wanted to save this moment for all my life," she said. "I don't know how she'southward going to feel about it. But this is so of import for me. Every time I go out in the water, I'll see the tattoo.
"To be a part of this is an honor. I however can't believe it yet; it feels similar every day I'thou dreaming."
Peru's Lucca Mesinas went ane better, carrying his country'due south flag in last Friday's opening ceremony, officially become an Olympian earlier his sport did.
"It's astonishing, a dream come true," he said. "I'one thousand staying at the Olympic Hamlet and seeing all the athletes at the gym there is crazy. And here too, surfing with the best surfers in the world is amazing."
Brazilian Italo Ferreira, a gold-medal favorite, made the most of his Olympic debut, earning scores of vii.00 and half dozen.67 in a clinical, round-one operation of abrupt turns and technical maneuvers.
In the women'south competition, Commonwealth of australia's Stephanie Gilmore, a seven-fourth dimension world champion, drew a two-wave score of 14.5. She was among the first of the 20 women in the water, which sometimes can exist a disadvantage. Just she welcomed it.
"I needed to get started early because surfing in Circular 1 was going to officially make us an Olympian," she said.
Teammate Sally Fitzgibbons won her heat with a score of 12.5.
"It even so feels so surreal, I've been pinching myself every day," Costa rica's Brisa Hennessy added. "It's been a dream walking amongst the best athletes in the world. An opportunity and experience of a lifetime."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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