Paris 2024 | Alonso Correa surfs Mount Olympus: What does fourth place mean to the surfing god? Olympics | Peruvian team | Sports totals

plum: Magu de la Rosa, Alonso Correa’s first coach: “Two or three years ago, he didn’t have any sponsors, but he is a great fighter who will fight for medals”

The road looked complicated, everything was uphill for Alonso, but the Peruvian gave it his all, stood firm and fought in the Olympic final. Or as he himself often said: “He went crazy.” Because you have to have a lot of talent and be very brave to compete with CT Kauli Vaast and Gabriel Medina and compete with them on the most dangerous wave in the world of surfing, Teahupo’o.

In the semifinals, Alonso faced a local Cauli who knows how to wait for the best waves in the sea without Pipeline. Vast is 22 years old and is considered one of the greatest talents on the circuit. Although he has not yet entered CT, his physical condition has earned him invitations to big wave dates, twice in Teahupoó, because he is a local, and once in Pipeline, Hawaii.

Then, in the bronze medal final, he lost in his warm-up match to Brazilian player Medina, who won the medal with two waves of 7.77 points, which attracted widespread attention.

Alonso and Gabriel each hit a wave, and after returning to the field, the Peruvian reached the oar first, but the referee gave priority to the Brazilian, which allowed him to hit a good wave later. Correa’s complaints in the water were very obvious.

Nevertheless, Alonso completed a great day of surfing for Peru, competing in both series and allowing Medina to show all his talents. The Brazilian is a three-time CT World Champion (2014, 2018 and 2021) and yesterday he showed his strength after losing in the semi-final.

Alonso received applause and standing ovations as he stamped his name as a respected figure in the world of surfing on his way to the final day of competition. He defeated two-time world champion Felipe Toledo and silver medalist Kanoa Igarashi in Tokyo in the first round. He then eliminated experienced South African Jordy Smith in a head-to-head battle and had a tough battle with Japan’s Tomoyuki Inaba in rough sea conditions.

“You are a great warrior and we are so proud of you. You have shocked us all.”These were the motivational words of Sofia Mulanovich during the official broadcast of the competition, the feeling of a country, the pride of seeing the Peruvian flag flying for a medal.

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Pure history

So there has not been a direct medal fight since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when Petr López competed for the bronze medal in Taekwondo. Then, the closest thing is the skating final with Ángelo Caro at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and the windsurfing semi-final with María Belén Bazo and the shooting final with Nicolás Pacheco at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Today we will experience it again with Stefano Peschiera in a dinghy or ILCA 7.

Peru finished fourth, with Maria Belén Bazo, the best result for Peru since Juan Guiha won silver in Barcelona ’92.

Fourth place is unusual for Peru, as we have only achieved this result in Mexico (68) and Los Angeles (84) and Francisco Boza in Seoul (88).

Alonso’s biggest wave is coming. A nation’s emotions will remain at the highest level.