Hawaiʻi Native Carissa Moore is ‘Stepping Back’ from Competitive Surfing
The five-time world champion and first-ever Olympic gold medalist in surfing will leave the sport after the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Hawaiʻi native Carissa Moore, the five-time world surfing champion and first-ever Olympic surfing gold medalist, will be stepping away from the sport after the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer.
On Instagram the 31-year-old posted: “This is by no means the end. I’d like to think of this instead as an evolution, the start of the next chapter, a new beginning … It’s a little nerve racking, but also so exciting.”
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Moore will be competing in the Summer Games as the defending Olympic gold medalist. She also plans to compete in two major surfing events this year, the first of which is the season opener for the World Surf League at Banzai Pipeline on Oʻahu’s North Shore on Jan. 29. She’s the reigning world champion.
Photo: Courtesy of Ben Reed/International Surfing Association
While she hasn’t been specific about what her future plans are, Moore told the New York Times that she does want to start a family with husband, Luke Untermann, and be challenged in new and different ways.
“All those wins, the competitive part that’s so much of my identity, I’m taking that away, and I’m facing myself this year,” Moore told the newspaper. “And that’s scary. Like, who am I? Am I going to be OK? Will I be able to love myself and think that I’m worthy without this?”
