Some CT surfers will benefit from the new system, while others could miss out on the Games. Photo: Pablo Franco//ISA
After a scathing critique from the World Surf League and a slew of Championship Tour surfers, the International Surfing Association capitulated and changed the Olympic qualification system. The new system gives more weight to the WSL CT (but not as much as it had for Paris 2024), reduced the cap on the number of surfers per country, and increased the number of CT events that will rank qualifying surfers.
The revisions have major implications for how surfers will qualify for the LA 2028 Games, just months before the first qualification event.
The major changes are:
- The number of slots reserved for the Championship Tour increases from five per gender to eight. At Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, these numbers were 10 men and eight women.
- The number of surfers per country who can qualify was reduced from three per gender to two, with the highest-ranking teams in each gender at the 2026 and 2027 World Surfing Games receiving a “bonus” third slot. This essentially reinstates the rule as it existed for Paris 2024.
- The CT surfers who qualify will be ranked based on their results in CT events from August 15, 2027 to June 15, 2028. Previously, the system was just going to pull the results from only the 2028 tour as of June 15.
- The number of surfers who qualify at the 2027 World Surfing Games is reduced from 10 of each gender to seven.
In a press release, the ISA said the changes were made after “a wide consultation throughout the surfing community and a deliberate balance between recognizing the world’s top-performing surfers and maintaining the Olympic principle of universality.” An ISA spokesperson told The Inertia that the process was a review “between the ISA and IOC listening to the CT athletes.” They did not answer questions about whether the WSL was involved in the negotiations and where the directive originated. The WSL did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Given that creating the Olympic qualification system is the sole responsibility of international federations, one can speculate that one of two things triggered these updates: There was genuine fear that the WSL or CT surfers would boycott the Olympics, or the International Olympic Committee directed the ISA to appease the disgruntled league and athletes. The ISA had already put years of thought into the original system, so it wouldn’t make much sense if these directives were from within the organization.
When the ISA released the LA 2028 system in February, they were immediately met by a chorus of negative social media comments from CT surfers. This included world champions like Filipe Toledo, Yago Dora, Caity Simmers, and Tyler Wright. Their principal complaints were that the number of slots reserved for the CT was reduced, and, instead of qualifying from a season-long CT ranking, it pulled the results from roughly the first five events of the season.
The ISA met the CT surfers in the middle, partially restoring the number of qualification slots reserved for the tour. But, ultimately, some of them will pay the price with the reduction in country quota. Also, while qualifying surfers from events between arbitrary midpoints in the 2027 and 2028 seasons will ensure that the best surfers of the moment qualify, it will create an odd parallel Olympic ranking separate from the title races — not exactly what the CT surfers envisioned when some asked for the rankings the year before the Olympics to be used, as had been done in the past.
The WSL also expressed its displeasure with the originally revised system, as CEO Ryan Crosby put out a public statement blasting the ISA for its “lack of consultation” and “back-channel discussions.”
Even with the changes, the ISA maintains the World Surfing Games’ importance by keeping the CT as the final qualification event. CT surfers are still incentivized to compete at the World Surfing Games and secure qualification before the 2028 tour — unless they manage to qualify through one of the continental pathways in 2026 or 2027.
The qualification kicks off with the 2026 Asian Games in September, which will award one slot to the highest-ranking man and woman (expect to see Kanoa Igarashi and Connor O’Leary there). Then, in November, the World Surfing Games in Peru will award one country slot to the highest-ranking team of each gender.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story was updated with a response from an ISA spokesperson.
