Cover photo: Medina's killer performance at Puerto Rico 2024 was fueled by the Olympic qualification. Now imagine all the CT surfers surfing with that same motivation... The effect could be powerful. Photo: ISA

The design of the Olympic qualification system in the past two cycles has certainly made competitive surfing more exciting, but it has always had flaws. Finally, it seems to have hit the mark.

Enumerating:

-The regional ISA WSG ranking meant that Europe and America were at each other's throats, and it made things easy for New Zealand and Morocco.

-The CT, especially the women's one, was boring; basically everyone qualified, especially those from non-traditional countries (Teresa Bonvalot qualified after competing in three events as a wildcard).

-The ISAs had their boring touch with the issue of the lack of effort put in by the CTs who only had to fulfill their obligation to be there.

RELATED NOTE: The ISA seeks to reduce the number of teams that qualify through the CT for LA 2028 to five

To mention a few details. Two of those three points seem to have been resolved with the announcement, still unofficial, that was leaked today:

-They're going to tear each other's eyes out in both the WSL and the ISA.

-That's how it is:

-Since few will qualify through the CT and the CT will be the last step on the path, they will go all out in the ISA to secure their spot in LA 2028 as soon as possible.

-In other words, whoever ISA has a chance to qualify for LA, the CT surfer is going to give it his all to get that spot.

-Then he'll go to the CT too and they'll be tearing each other apart there, and whoever has already secured their spot through the ISA will be fighting tooth and nail to win because the world title, which will continue for the rest of the year and carries enormous weight, will be on the line.

In other words, the winner of the 2028 WSL CT will win, and the ISA athletes who qualify for LA will also win. In all cases, the level of competition will be extremely high, with CT athletes facing off against surfers from around the world to secure their spot.

The details are still missing, of course… Will there be three spots again for the winners of the ISA WSG? Let's hope so, this will make countries even more eager to secure those spots.

Just think of Medina's killer performance in Puerto Rico to understand that this is all a good idea.

The Olympic path has just become much more exciting than it was. This eliminates the main problems the system had previously (only the continental aspect remains, which it seems clear will also change; it has to change).

This seems like excellent news that the WSL probably won't like, but in this, the ISA holds all the cards, and if they don't like it, they can perfectly well go and tell them: "Then everyone qualifies through the ISA."