Australian and Japanese Connor O'Leary wants to represent Japan from now on and put aside the Australian flag, the Brazilian platform reported. AOS Media based on information provided by the Japanese surfing federation.

The application was made on June 5 to the International Surfing Association to accept the change of nationality.

Connor is the son of an Australian father and a Japanese mother, and if he had represented Japan all this year, he would have qualified for Paris 2024 as he was ranked 11th, above Kanoa, and would have been the best Japanese at the Games.

But according to AOS, O'Leary's application would not be included in the CT ranking, but what he wants or would be legally possible is to be given the extra slot that Japan won at the 2022 ISA World Surfing Games.

Japan has already provisionally qualified, already announced by the ISA, Kanoa Igarashi, through the CT and Reo Inaba, through the ISA World Cup in El Salvador 2023.

One of the surfers who had shown interest in going to Teahupoo to represent Japan had been the Japanese Kelly, Masatoshi Ohno, a great tube rider with experience in Pipe and Teahupoo.

O'Leary's would be another chapter in the great change of nationalities that occurred with Olympic surfing, which has Tatiana Weston Webb, Jessé Mendes, Luana Silva, Brisa Hennessy, Erin Brooks, among others, as some names that decided to change their nationalities.