Watch: All The Highlights From The 2024 MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal
A Championship Tour event in Europe is more a marathon than a sprint, and in the end, it was America's Griffin Colapinto and France's Johanne Defay that had the endurance to claw their way to the top of the podium.
The first day of competition was a full ten days ago, and with lay days, wild weather that included gale force winds and a heavy hail storm, and venue changes, somehow it got done. In the early days of the event it was defending world champ Caroline Marks and surging Aussie Jack Robinson that looked like they could go the distance. Then three-time world champ Gabriel Medina got into the mix. But come finals day, Colapinto and Defay's combination of steady pacing and peaking at the right time put them over the top.
Three stops of the 2024 WSL Championship Tour are now in the books. Colapinto now sits ranked number one in the world, while Defay sits number two. Both will also be making an appearance in the Paris 2024 Olympics later this year. Defay while be waving the flag of the host country, while Colapinto leads an all-star cast of Americans.
There are two more Championship Tour events on tap before the critical mid-season cut, and for those on the bubble, that means the stakes Down Under are huge. The Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach kicks off on March 26, so there's not a lot of time for competitors to regroup and refocus. For Colapinto, it probably means a quick stop home in California to pick up some new boards, sleep in his own bed for a couple nights, then it's back on the road.
