Mendes says he’ll still compete if the waves are good. Lucky guy. Photo: WSL
Brazilian Jesse Mendes says he’s done with pursuing the Olympics. In 2022, he leveraged his grandmother’s Italian roots to get citizenship and compete under Italy’s national flag. Mendes’ motivation for doing so: “100 percent the Olympics,” he said. Even though the Paris 2024 qualification system still has 18 slots left to be decided, he’s going to put the competition grind on the back burner in 2024, skipping the QS circuit and the World Surfing Games in February – the last Olympic qualifier.
“At the end of last year, I started just thinking a bunch and I just started to see that my heart wasn’t there anymore,” Mendes told The Inertia about his competition surfing. “If I’m not fully committed, why would I travel around the world (to compete and) get bummed if I lose?”
“(The Olympics) was no longer really a dream for me,” Mendes added. “I was a little burned out on competing. The toughest part was just committing. There’s a lot that comes with it and I tip my hat to everyone who does it, because they put in so much energy. They put their whole lives into it. Everyone thinks that competitors just travel and get to put on a jersey. And even if the waves suck they’re getting paid for surfing. But there’s way more behind it – the training, the mindset, the preparation, pretty much 24-7 thinking about it. And that takes a lot of energy out of you.”
Mendes was just one of a handful of surfers who realized their chances of Olympic qualification would be better if they switched countries. Given that the Olympic qualification system for surfing is capped at two surfers of each gender per country (with a few caveats), athletes like Mendes, who has ten fellow Brazilians on the CT competing for those slots, looked for the simpler route: switching nationalities. Surfers like Kanoa Igarashi went from the U.S. to Japan. Brisa Hennessy went from the U.S. to Costa Rica. Tatiana Weston-Webb (Mendes’ wife) went from the U.S. to Brazil. A handful of other surfers followed suit.
It was Mendes’ idea to reach out to Italy’s surfing federation in 2022 to let them know about his Italian bloodline. He was hoping to qualify as an Italian on the 2023 WSL CT. When he didn’t qualify, he tried again at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games, which also proved fruitless. That’s when he contacted the federation again, to let them know that his goals had shifted away from competition. According to Mendes, the federation was shocked, but understanding.
While Mendes is stepping away from the Olympic qualification pathway, he doesn’t deny the value of winning a medal. “I have nothing against people that love that they’re going to be (Olympians),” said Mendes “My wife’s biggest dream is to be an Olympic gold medalist more than anything. But for me, it just wasn’t there.”
As far as what’s in store for Mendes in 2024, he says he’ll be working closely with his main sponsor, Body Glove, making new surf edits, and doing a bit of web commentating with the WSL. He’s even got a new edit set to drop at the beginning of the new year featuring surf trips in Portugal and Indonesia. But don’t be surprised if you do see Mendes wearing a competition jersey in 2024. “I wouldn’t be opposed to doing an event where the waves are sick,” he added.
