American Carissa Moore makes history by winning surfing gold

American surfer Carissa Moore made history Tuesday when she became the first woman to win a gold medal in surfing at the Olympics.

Moore, the only ethnic Hawaiian on the U.S. Olympic list and a former child prodigy who grew up to be the world’s youngest surfing champion, defeated Bianca Buitendag of South Africa with a score of 14.93-8.46 . The 17th Buitendag won a silver medal, having managed upheaval after upheaval to deliver some of the competition’s greatest moments on its way to the Olympic podium.

Surfing is one of the sports to feature at the Olympic Games for the first time, alongside karate and skateboarding.

Each wave a surfer rides on is rated by a panel of five judges on a scale of 0.1 to 10.0. The highest and lowest of the five scores are discarded. The surfer’s score is the average of the three remaining scores. The two best scoring waves of each surfer are added to determine their heat total, out of a maximum of 20 points.

Earlier in the men’s draw, Brazilian Italo Ferreira won a historic gold medal at Tsurigasaki Beach, about 60 miles from Tokyo, overcoming the early adversity of breaking his board in his first wave to win. the Japanese Kanoa Igarashi.

The finals were moved to Wednesday due to an offshore tropical storm that flooded the Tokyo area with rain – competitors may have benefited from bigger waves than usual due to the storm.

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Ferreira, who is the defending World Surf League champion, posted a 7.77 and 7.37 for a combined of 15.14, while Igarashi struggled to keep up. The silver medalist counted 3.83 and 2.77, combined for a 6.60. Ferreira started rowing towards shore with over a minute left as Igarashi was too far behind to beat his score. The Brazilian was greeted at the beach by teammates who lifted him onto their shoulders, carrying on the tradition that the winner’s feet must not touch the sand.

In the bronze medal match, Australian surfer Owen Wright edged Brazilian Gabriel Medina. Wright, who suffered a brain injury during an erasure in 2015 and had to relearn how to surf, celebrated the victory with enthusiasm on the beach.

Wright, 31, scored 6.50 in his first wave and 5.47 in the fourth, combining for a game score of 11.97. Medina scored a 5.43 on her third wave and a 5.77 on her eighth and final wave, combining for an 11.77.

American Kolohe Andino was eliminated by Igarashi in the quarter-finals on Monday.

American Caroline Marks was upset by Japan’s Amuro Tsuzuki in the women’s bronze medal match, 6.80-4.26. Marks, after shining in the opening rounds with dizzying scores, peaked at 2.33 in his first wave.

The Associated Press contributed.