China has its first Olympic surfer as Yang Siqi, 14, becomes youngest Paris qualifier
- Teenager ‘super-excited’ after being told she had clinched an Olympic spot with her performance at the World Surfing Games
- ‘We were about to leave,’ she says. ‘When the staff asked me to stay, I was not aware that I would earn the Olympic qualification’
China’s Yang Siqi has spoken of her surprise after earning the right to become her country’s first Olympic surfer – not to mention being, at just 14 years old, the youngest person to qualify in her sport for the Paris Games.
The teen claimed her spot by progressing through the repechage rounds on Friday at the World Surfing Games (WSG) in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, beating British surf-skate phenomenon Sky Brown and Costa Rica’s 2021 Olympian Brisa Hennessy.
Yang was formally awarded her place when International Surfing officials presented her with a ceremonial ticket to Tahiti. Paris’ surfing events will be taking place on the island, which is part of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the South Pacific.
“Thank you my family, thank you everyone,” Yang said in response.
The schoolgirl, who started surfing in 2018, will be among 24 women who will compete in the thumping tubes of Teahupo’o over four days during a nine-day window beginning on July 27.
But speaking to mainland Chinese media, Yang admitted that, after finishing first in repechage round six, she “didn’t anticipate that I have qualified”.
“We were about to leave,” she said. “When the staff asked me to stay, I was not aware that I would earn the Olympic qualification. I was super-excited when being informed of that and I felt my hands trembling.”
She added that qualification had been the goal she set after making her debut at the WSG two years ago.
She showed power and precision to record Friday’s highest single-wave score, but maintained that she “didn’t expect that I would qualify”.
“All I thought was to relax, do my best and make it to the next round,” Yang said. “The waves were especially difficult, the current was strong.”
The result meant that Brown fell short in her efforts to represent Britain in both surfing and skating in Paris. She was attempting to become the first Briton in more than a century to compete in two different sports at the same summer Olympics.
Brown, still just 15, claimed a bronze in skateboarding’s street discipline at the Tokyo Games three years ago, the first Olympics to feature that sport, and indeed surfing. She remains comfortably on track to qualify for the 2024 Games’ skateboarding competition.
