18-year-old US surfer Caitlin Simmers makes history becoming surfing’s youngest female world champion

(CNN) — 18-year-old US surfer Caitlin Simmers made history on Friday, becoming the youngest-ever female surfing world champion after winning the World Surf League (WSL) finals.

Simmers beat reigning world champion Caroline Marks in the title match to etch her name into the sport’s history books.

“I think since I first started competing, I’ve always wanted to win a world title,” Simmers said afterwards, per the Red Bull website. “Once you get to the higher levels … you realize that you’re doing it all just to try and get on the tour and win a world title. So, to actually do it is surreal, this feels crazy!”

Simmers entered the finals at Lower Trestles in southern California – just 20 minutes from her hometown – as the top seed after three WSL tour wins this year.

The WSL finals saw the fifth and fourth ranked surfers duel, with the winner advancing to face the third ranked surfer. That winner then progresses to face the second ranked surfer, with that winner then taking on the top ranked surfer in the title match, a best-of-three final that crowns the world champion.

As a result, Simmers had to wait while her competitors duked it out to decide who she will face. In the end, second-seeded Marks, the defending world champion, earned the right to face Simmers.

It was Marks who began the title match quickest, with the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medalist winning the first heat comfortably. But it only seemed to spark Simmers into life.

Two nine-point rides in the second heat leveled the scores and in the deciding heat, the teenager’s run of 8.33 was the winning score as time expired on Marks’ reply with the waves dying down, crowning Simmers as world champion.

“I came in today with the mindset of: ‘I’m going to surf how I want to surf’; I didn’t want to do any safety surfing,” Simmers explained. “That’s always my goal because if I’m going to win then I want win with the surfing I want to do.

“I was lucky enough today to keep myself in the moment and choose the best waves, and I’m glad that I could pull it off and do that. It was an amazing day.”

Simmers overtook five-time world champion Carissa Moore as surfing’s youngest women’s world champion at the age of 18 years, 10 months and 12 days.

When put to her, Simmers said the record was “cool” to have, calling Moore “one of the best of all time.”

“I had the privilege of getting to know Carissa on the last trip we went on, to Tahiti,” she said. “I had a really great time with her, and she gave me and Caroline a lot of advice.

“Carissa was a bit of a big sister, it was cool to see her super relaxed around us. I felt like we were all really comfortable with ourselves, and were all having a great time with each other.”

In the men’s competition, Hawaii’s John John Florence won his third world title after beating Brazil’s Ítalo Ferreira in the final.

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