Melanie Giunta: “The decisions they have made regarding these quotas are really questionable”

The former South American junior champion, former South American professional vice-champion and current ISA top 25 expressed her disagreement with the reduction of quotas for challengers from the South American region


March 25th, 2022
|EN News
|POR DUKE

Peruvian power surfer, former WSL South American Junior Champion, former WSL South American Professional Vice-Champion and current ISA Top 25, Melanie Giunta expressed her disagreement with the reduction of quotas from five to four for the WSL South America in the comments on DUKE's Instagram.

“What a strong statement like that… South America without a level? Silvana Lima was vice world CT champion, Mimi Barona was two places away from entering with solid results in the primes, Summer Macedo was junior world champion and representative of Hawaii for several years, Daniella Rosas was Pan American champion and Olympic athlete,” Giunta begins by mentioning.

And she continues: “Most of us always finished in the Top 40 when it was the international circuit, which is now known as the Challengers, and the list goes on. There are at least 10 of us girls with the potential to compete against the best in any region. If they were really measured by level and numbers in the international ranking before the rule change, not only would we have more spots; the men from South America should at least double the spots of those from other regions. The decisions they have made for these spots and the new rules of the circuit are difficult and truly questionable.”

Giunta's message was answered by Olympian and Pan American gold medalist Daniella Rosas, paraphrasing what the WSL said, "low level."

Earlier this week, WSL South America informed DUKE that the number of female surfers qualifying for challengers across the region had dropped from five to four.

“It was a technical analysis due to the low representation of South American surfers compared to other regional boards (…) The justification is that, the technical level of South American surfers. There are 14, 15, 16 year old girls from Australia, Hawaii and the United States who are winning championships and entering the CT. Do we have the level of Bettylou, Luana Silva, Molly Picklum here?” the representative asked in contact with DUKE.

 

Peru South America WSL