Eleven-time world champion says he will call time on his long and decorated career if he appears at the Games, when he will be 52
Slater has previously hinted about his plans for retirement, including in 2018 when heThe surfing competition at the Paris Olympics will be held in Tahiti, at the famed Teahupo’o break. Slater has won the World Surf League stop in Tahiti on five occasions, as part of his record-breaking 56 career championship tour victories. If he qualifies to represent the United States next year, he will be among the favourites at the heavy barrelling wave.
“I’m really hoping to qualify for it, but I need to get my butt into gear,” he said. “The qualification process is going to be tough, but if I can get into the Olympics, the location the event is at in Tahiti – that wave really suits my strengths. So if I can get there I think I have a really good chance of a medal, but I think the harder part is going to be getting there, to be honest.”
The addition of surfing to the Olympic roster has provided a new spark of inspiration, the veteran surfer said. “As a kid my goal was to win contests on tour and potentially be a world champion one day – that was really the peak of my idea about what my future might hold in surfing,” Slater said. “With surfing coming into the Olympics at the last summer Olympics in Japan for the first time, it’s offered up this other potential goal to reach towards.”to win the bronze medal in the men’s competition.
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