PARIS — Islander Sanoa Dempfle-Olin rode the waves into history Saturday as the first Canadian to compete in Olympic surfing. No Canadians made it when the sport made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.
“I am treating it as another event, but it’s obviously an amazing event,” she said.
The surfing competition of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games opened on the iconic waves known as the Wall of Skulls in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, and they were crashing spectacularly on the day with classic swells.
But Dempfle-Olin was thinking of Tofino, the spiritual and actual home of Canadian surfing, and her hometown was thinking of her in her big moment.
“It’s crazy the amount of support I grew up with in town. The support is amazing and it feels great,” said Dempfle-Olin, 19.
“Everyone in that place has inspired me my whole life.”
That includes older sister, 21-year-old Mathea Dempfle-Olin, who won bronze in the 2019 Lima Pan Am Games, but who little sister Sanoa beat to the Olympics.
“Mathea is my biggest inspiration and pushed me, and has helped me so much all of my life,” said Sanoa, who won silver in the 2023 Santiago Pan Am Games to qualify for the Paris Olympics. “She set a bar for me to reach for. And I’ve kept her on her toes and pushed her as well. There are going to be a lot of competitions we are both at together.” It isn’t at the Paris Olympics, but perhaps Los Angeles 2028 or Brisbane 2032.
Dempfle-Olin was drawn into an opening women’s Olympic group Saturday in Tahiti with veteran Tyler Wright of Australia, the back-to-back world champion in 2016 and 2017, and 2020 Tokyo Olympian Anat Lelior of Israel. Like Dempfle-Olin, Lelior also has a sister, Noa Lelior, who is a high-level competitive surfer.
The winner of each opening group advances to the third round. The other two finishers in each three-surfer opening round group must go through a repechage second round in order to advance to the third round. Following the third round are the quarter-finals, followed by the semifinals and Olympic final through Tuesday.
Wright won the group Saturday with 7.67 points to Lelior’s 5.43 and Dempfle-Olin’s 4.83. Wright goes directly to the third round while Lelior and Dempfle-Olin will need to battle their ways there through the second-round repechage.
“We are at the mercy of mother nature,” said Dempfle-Olin, of her sport.
“You make the best decision you can in waiting for your wave and picking the right one. You have to be ready for anything.”
She does so knowing she has an entire Island community cheering her on.
