As the third-highest ranked surfer in the United States, Kelly Slater was immediately nominated for their national team for the 2020 World Surfing Games, according to ISA eligibility criteria that DUKE met.

“These surfers are required to participate in the 2019 and 2020 World Surfing Games, as agreed by the ISA, the IOC and the WSL. If any of these athletes refuse to do so, they will not be eligible for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games,” the criteria states.

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The ISA confirmed that if Slater does not make it to the World Surfing Games in May, whose venue has not yet been defined, and if either John John or Kolohe get injured, Slater would not go to Tokyo 2020 (in such a situation, Seth Moniz would be invited to the USA team and if one of them gets injured, Moniz would go).

The same rule applies to all other countries and genders at the 2020 World Surfing Games: Lakey Peterson will have to represent the United States, Ryan Callinan and Nikki Van Dijk for Australia, Filipe Toledo for Brazil, Joan Duru for France, etc.

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