Surfing: Defending Gold Medalist Carissa Moore (USA) eliminated in quarter finalsÂ
Carissa Moore of the United States, one of the most dominant female surfers of all time, was defeated by Johanne Defay of Team France in heat #2 of the Women’s quarter finals. Having recently retired from the World Tour, it has been widely speculated that this Olympics would mark the end of Moore’s (USA) decorated competitive career. If so, her final chapter was just written in Tahiti with a dissapointing loss just shy of the medal rounds.Â
Defay (FRA) took the lead early and never let it go. She earned the heats two highest scoring waves, a 5.67 then a 4.67, thanks to her trademark backside attack. Finding the cleanest lip lines of the heat, Defay (FRA) used a series of smooth and powerful lip bashes timed perfectly to smack the pitching pocket with authority to pave her way to the semi-finals.Â
With a sideshore wind creating white caps out the back and putting a mean chop in the wave faces, Moore (USA) never found the rhythm she needed. But her loss certainly wasn’t for a lack of trying. The defending Olympic gold medalist was still very much alive in the final seconds of the heat when she pulled into a hail merry barrel and very nearly exited it in heroic fashion. You could see her hand reaching for the daylight of the shoulder just as she came unstuck from her board.Â
Moore (USA) finished with a total score of 6.50, losing to Defay’s(FRA) total of 10.34.Â
Defay(FRA) moves on to face Caroline Marks of Team USA in the semi-finals.