Could Non-Olympians Have A Better Shot at a World Title This Year?

On the WSL rankings, the little green and red arrows provide the quickest and easiest, indications of a current surfer’s form. In the Men’s Top 10, the only two surfers with significant green upticks are Italo Ferreira and Yago Dora. In the Women’s, it is Gabriela Bryan. These are the only World Title contenders that aren’t going to the Olympics.

For Italo Ferreira, there is now a single clarity of purpose. Last year was his worst full year on tour. He made just one final at the Surf Ranch, and his next best result was a fifth to finish as the World No.13 and way off the Olympic qualification spots. The disappointment of failing to have the chance to defend his Olympic Title win in Tokyo could have been part of his poor start in 2024. In the first five events, his best result was a quarterfinal finish, and not making the cut became a real threat.

Since just getting over the line, he’s won in Tahiti and Rio. Tahiti gave him an 8-ranking green-arrow boost; Rio another three. He now has only one goal: to first make the WSL Finals at Trestles, and then win a second World Title. After a few seasons where he has seemed a bit distracted, he’s now gone back to a simple strategy – go big or go home. Unlike all his fellow World Title contenders though, the Olympics isn’t clogging up his mental hard drive.

His compatriot Yago Dora has followed a similar trajectory as Italo. After a slow start to the season, and then a first-round loss at Margaret River, he was left to wait for other competitors’ results to see if he would even make the mid-year cut. He was a rival’s heat win away from a real career setback. Yet after squeaking through, he made the quarters in Tahiti, followed by back-to-back finals in El Salvador and Rio. He’s now breathing down the neck of Ethan Ewing who currently holds on to the 5th place spot.

Unlike Ewing, he won’t have the pressures of his country’s surfing expectations resting on his shoulders this month whilst trying to negotiate one of surfing’s heaviest waves. For Yago, the chance to win a World Title could come down to simply placing above the Australian in Fiji.

Gabriela Bryan, the breakout star of 2024, has moved up above Johanne Defay into the all-important top 5 after a string of semifinals. She is now the only athlete in the top 7 that won’t be heading to the Games. While her competitors start focusing on Olympic glory, she will regroup with coach Richard “Dog” Marsh and build a plan for Cloudbreak. She knows she has to hang on to the slender lead she’s built over the Frenchwoman to be the real surprise pack of the WSL Finals.

The trio now have the better part of six weeks to get ready for the Corona Fiji Pro. Italo is the only one that has competed there, and that was as a rookie in 2016. You’d imagine they will all post up at Tavarua if any swell hits Cloudbreak. The gap in their schedule means they all can now log some more serious island time at the wave in the lead-up to the all-important final CT.

Such Olympics-free time might just work in their favor.