A whirlwind of emotion—that’s the best way to describe the last two weeks for American surfer Caroline Marks. On August 5, Marks, 22, won the Olympic gold medal on Tahiti’s formidable Teahupo’o wave. Six days later, Marks was in Paris for the Games’ closing ceremony. Then, she made a quick trip to New York City for a 24-hour media blitz, before flying back to the South Pacific for the Fiji Pro, the final round of the World Surf League’s regular season.
Poor waves in Fiji earlier this week gave Marks and the other surfers at the competition 24 hours of rest. “I’m appreciating the chance to regroup,” she told me on a recent phone call. “I’ve just accomplished one of my biggest dreams but it’s time to refocus and carry the crazy momentum into Fiji. There’s still work to be done. I’ll have time to celebrate in the off-season.”
The ability to tune out distractions—even the excitement of winning an Olympic gold medal—and to focus on the upcoming competition has helped Marks surge to the pinnacle of competitive surfing. During the Olympics, she attacked Teahupo’o, one of the world’s most dangerous waves, with seamless flow. Marks reezed through the early rounds and easily qualified for the quarterfinals, where the competition stiffened. She defeated multi-time World Champion Tyler Wright of Australia and eventual bronze medalist Johanne Defay of France, before facing off against Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil in the finals.
Both surfers were patient in the finals, waiting ten minutes to find a set they liked. Marks rode a barrel. Weston-Webb answered with a stunning ride of her own. Competitive surfing is judged by a panel of experts who analyze each ride and award a score. The gold-medal round came down to the wire, and in the end Marks won with a score of 10.5 to Weston-Webb’s 10.33.
I called Oahu-based surf guru Doug Silva, who coaches athletes like Kai Lenny and Seth Moniz, to get his analysis of the finals. Silva said Marks’ combination of rhythm, speed, and flare helped her eke out the win. “She draws certain lines on most waves consistently and they are speed lines that have pizazz,” he said. “She’ll do a turn on the top that has a bit of ooh, aah. Tatiana is really good. She has that flare and sparkle 90 percent of the time but Caroline has it 95 percent.”
Marks burst into tears when the final score was announced. She’s women’s surfing’s second Olympic champion, behind American Carissa Moore who won the inaugural gold medal in 2021 in Tokyo.
Marks said her recent success sprung from her ability to manage pressure—specifically, she learned to channel it in her favor. “As an athlete, you face a lot of pressure and high-intensity moments,” she said. “I’ve learned we all have doubts and fears but if you want to win titles you have to get over those mental blocks and believe in yourself.”
Mastering the psychological side of competitive surfing did not come overnight. Marks actually stepped away from the sport for four months in an attempt to build her confidence. In 2022, she went on hiatus, publicly citing mental and physical health struggles, and missed the first half of the 2022 women’s championship tour.
“I got to a place where I just wasn’t really having that much fun anymore,” Marks told the Guardian last September. “I just wasn’t that happy. And I just put so much pressure on myself that it just kind of spun me out. When you become super good and super successful at a young age and the expectations are very high, it feels like if you don’t live up to that expectation, anything less than that is a failure in a way, which is so crazy to say.”
The third of six children, Marks grew up in Melbourne Beach, Florida, chasing her brothers around the waves. As a child, she raced horses in a competitive event called barrel racing, where riders navigate metal barrels. But as a teenager she traded horse barrels for ones in the ocean, and thrived. At 15, Marks became the youngest surfer to reach the Championship Tour, and pundits predicted that she would someday win the world title. She won major events in 2019, and the results boosted her confidence as she prepared for surfing’s Olympic debut.
But in Tokyo in 2021 she came up just short of a medal and said it took her taking a break from the sport to get over the disappointment.
“I needed time to focus on myself,” she said. “I didn’t surf for a few months and then I went on a boat trip to the Mentawais. For ten days I had no cell service. I was with friends doing the thing I loved just for me without any pressure. And that’s how I want to feel when I’m competing. Just feel that pure love of surfing.”
Marks said she’s also found comfort in reflecting in a journal. “I write down what I’m grateful for every day,” she said. “And I remind myself of the hard work I’ve put in.” She said she’s also learned to focus on what she can control: Her nutrition, sleep, training, and the people she surrounds herself with. It helps Marks to not stress over what she can’t control, like the wave conditions or social media comments.
The new approach worked, and Marks has enjoyed a winning streak over the past season. Last September, she captured her first world title on the World Surf League Championship Tour at Lower Trestles in her new hometown of San Clemente, California. To follow that up with Olympic gold is a triumph worthy of a fairytale.
The surfing world has taken note of Marks and her rapid rise. “Her journey is pretty inspiring,” says legendary waterman Kai Lenny. Lenny spoke to Marks when she was struggling, and said she doubted herself.
“Before winning the world title last year she was not in a place where she thought she could win anything,” he added. “When I spoke to her she wasn’t even sure she was going to make it back on tour let alone win a gold medal. To go from your darkest point to your highest moment in one-and-a-half years is truly a testament to perseverance. She’s definitely secured herself as one of the greatest female surfers of all time.”
The Olympic victory has raised Marks’ profile within the surfing world and outside of it—she’s now one of the most visible female surfers on the planet. She credits female surfers including Lisa Andersen, Stephanie Gilmore, and former Olympic gold medalist, Carissa Moore, with paving the way for women of her generation.
“I’m excited to take on that role for the next generation and push the progression of the sport,” she said. “It’s an amazing time to be a female athlete. American women took home more than half of Team U.S.A.’s medals. There are more sponsorship opportunities. Women are getting bigger and better deals.”
She believes the Olympic stage, particularly the recent venue at Teahupo’o, has finally given surfing the respect it deserves among casual audiences. “Surfers deserve professionalism,” she said. “There’s still this Spicoli image around surfers but we train, we have coaches and nutritionists. The world tunes in to watch the Olympics and it has helped people look at us as real athletes.”
In 2028, the Olympics will be held in Marks’ new backyard in Los Angeles. She hopes to have the chance to defend her medal and predicts the talent pool will be stronger than ever as women are presented with more opportunities to compete in waves of consequence, like Teahupo’o and Cloudbreak, the venue for the Fiji Pro and the 2025 World Surf League Finals.
“The skill level just keeps skyrocketing,” she said. “It’s been really exciting to watch and be part of it.”
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