by Olympians Caity Simmers and John John Florence won the world surfing titles Friday, giving the United States a sweep of the women’s and men’s crowns for the first time since 2011.
Simmers, an 18-year-old from Oceanside, California, became the youngest world champion in World Surf League history.
She beat Olympic gold medalist Caroline Marks in a best-of-three championship series at Lower Trestles near San Clemente, California.
“It means a lot to me,” Simmers said. “I literally experienced every emotion today.”
In the first heat, Simmers took the lead with a wave of 8.37 points in the final minute of the 35-minute contest. Then Marks scored 9.60 points as time expired to win 17.43 to 16.87.
In the second series, Simmers posted scores of 9.20 and 9.17 out of 10 for 18.37 points, the highest combination in the four-year history of the WSL Finals format for either men or women.
The deciding match was a simpler victory for the Simmers: 15.16 to 7.17 with a lack of waves.
The WSL Finals were introduced in 2021, with the top five surfers per gender advancing from the regular season to the playoffs.
The women’s and men’s playoffs began with the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds facing off. The winner faced the No. 3 seed. The next winner faced the No. 2 seed. The next winner faced the No. 1 seed in the championship series.
Simmers and Florence both had byes into the best-of-three championship series in the five-surfer final as the top-ranked surfers from the regular season.
Prior to 2021, world champions were crowned solely on the basis of the season’s points standings.
Simmers is six days younger than the previous youngest WSL world champion, Tokyo Olympic gold medallist Carissa Moore, who won the first of her five world titles at 18 in 2011.
There were younger world champions before the creation of International Professional Surfing (IPS) in 1976, notably 15-year-old American Margo Oberg (then Godfrey) in 1968.
Simmers won the 2021 U.S. Open at age 15 and qualified for the 2022 World Surf League Championship Tour. She chose to stay in the developmental Challenger Series that year to prioritize time with family and friends, school, and maturing as an athlete.
She made her full-time Championship Tour debut in 2023, won her third event, finished fourth at those WSL Finals and earned the final spot on the three-woman U.S. Olympic team for 2024.
At the Tahiti Olympics, Simmers was eliminated in the round of 16.
All three American women who have competed in Olympic surfing have now won world titles: Simmers, Marks in 2023 and Moore (most recently in 2021).
On Friday, in the men’s final, Florence won his third world title, beating Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Italo Ferreira of Brazil in the championship series: 15.50 to 15.33 and 18.13 to 16.30.
Florence equalled 11-time world champion Kelly Slater’s record for the longest gap between world titles since the inception of the IPS: seven years.
“The last seven years have been very difficult,” said Florence, who cried in the water. “There have been so many injuries and you have to fight to get back to this position and have this new format, it’s so stressful.”
The Hawaiian’s highlight was a 9.70-point burst in the second game, the highest score in finals history, according to WSL commentary.
Florence ended Brazil’s streak of five consecutive crowns since Florence won back-to-back titles in 2016 and 2017.
The last time Americans won world titles was in 2011, when Moore won his first title and Slater his 11th and final title.
