The International Surfing Association (ISA) announced this Friday (20) how the places will be distributed at the Los Angeles Olympics, in the United States, in 2028. The main change is the reduction in the weight of the World Surfing League (WSL).
At the Games in Tokyo, Japan, and Paris, France, the elite circuit of the sport qualified eight women and ten men. For Los Angeles, there will only be ten places in total allocated to the WSL rankings, five for men and five for women, with a limit of one athlete per country. The list closes in mid-June 2028, one month before the mega event begins.
Last year, the top-5 of the men’s circuit had two Brazilians: Paraná’s Yago Dora, champion; and the Potiguar Ítalo Ferreira, who was fourth. In the scenario that lasted until the Paris Games, both would be classified, as places were allocated to the top ten, with a limit of two athletes per country. In this new one, only Yago would be at the Olympics via WSL.
At the same time, ISA increased the number of places at its own events. This is the case of the 2028 World Surfing Games (or ISA Surfing Games), which will allocate ten places to the Olympics by gender, also limited to one per nation. In addition, the best performing countries in the 2026 and 2027 editions of the event gain an extra place.
In Paris, the World Games of the Olympic year represented only seven places per gender, six individual places and one for the country with the best result in the event. Brazil ended up benefiting from this extra classification in both suits at the time, being the nation with the most representatives in that edition of the Games, with six athletes (three in the men’s and three in the women’s).
In addition to the WSL, the World Games and the universal places (one from the host country and another that is aimed at a developing nation in the sport), surfers can qualify for Los Angeles through continental tournaments. In the Brazilian case, the 2027 Pan American Games, in Lima, Peru. The champion goes to the Olympics.
Brazil has been to the Olympic podium three times, more than any other country. In 2021, in Tokyo, Ítalo Ferreira won the sport’s first gold. Three years later, at the Paris Games, São Paulo’s Gabriel Medina won bronze in the men’s category and Tatiana Weston-Webb from Rio Grande do Sul won silver in the women’s.
