Cover photo: Slater by Aaron Hughes 

The best in history, Kelly Slater, has received the WSL's mid-year wildcard, the institution announced today in a statement sent to the press and fans.

Slater will thus add points to achieve the 5th final and Olympic qualification, and could even become world champion, according to calculations made by Stab, and will also be able to compete in the first half of 2024.

The statement said the surfers who received the wildcard applied for it, which clears up a huge doubt about Slater's intentions for the second half of the year.

The best in history now has to overcome John John and Griffin to qualify for Tokyo or hope that the North American team wins the 2024 World Surfing Games that will be held in Puerto Rico.

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For Slater, it will now be a question of whether he will go to each of the following events: Surf Ranch, El Salvador, Saquarema, JBay and Teahupoo, since the champion is invited but he can accept or not to go to each championship.

The same award that Slater received went to Johanne Defay of France.

On the other hand, the wildcards for the first half of 2024 were awarded to Brisa Hennessy and Miguel Pupo.

The Costa Rican and the Brazilian are guaranteed to be on the 2024 tour.