Photo: Aaron Hughes/WSL
Two-time world champion Tyler Wright announced last week that she will not compete at the upcoming Vivo Rio Pro in Brazil due to an injury. Wright broke the news on her Instagram but did not give specifics as to why she will miss the eighth event on the 2024 Championship Tour.
Currently No. 9 in the world and competing in her 12th CT season, Wright has been surfing heats this year with a device screwed into her head called a maxillary palatal expander, designed to expand her airways and increase her breathing capability. She started this process in November.
Related: 2x World Champ Tyler Wright Opens Up About Offseason Airway Procedure
On Thursday, Guardian Australia reported that Wright expects to be ready for the 2024 Paris Olympics, which is scheduled for late July. Wright should be a strong contender for the Olympics, as she had placed third and fifth in her last two CT events in Tahiti. The outlet quoted a spokesperson for Wright who said, “Tyler has been advised by her doctors and specialists that she needs some treatment and would prefer her sitting out Brazil. Tyler will be 100% ready for the Olympics.”
But just to have every base covered, Surfing Australia has flights and slots for backup surfers who could compete at Teahupo’o if needed. The organization has selected Sally Fitzgibbons and Ryan Callinan to be the backup surfers in case one of their athletes drops out.
Eric Haakonssen, Surfing Australia’s performance support and podium manager told the Guardian Australia that “we have Sally Fitzgibbons and Ryan Callinan on standby with a fully flexible flight booked to arrive 24 hours prior to the event window. If the event looks likely to start later in the window, we will adjust those flights to depart later just in case.”
Fitzgibbons is a 33-year-old Championship Tour veteran who competed at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Despite more than a decade at surfing’s highest level, she has never surfed a heat at Teahupo’o, as the venue returned to the women’s schedule in 2022, when she had not made the mid-year cut. She won the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico in March but was not selected to the Olympic team because the Aussies did not earn a third slot, and she was not one of the top two Australian surfers on the 2023 CT.
Callinan, age 32, is 15th on the CT and currently competing in Brazil. He finished 5th in the 2024 Tahiti Pro (lost to Gabriel Medina), his best result in four events at Teahupo’o.
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