🏄‍♀️ The Surfing Phenom With Olympic Dreams

Caroline Marks is trying to punch her ticket to the Summer Games. She’ll have to unseat the best in the world to get there. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: A teenage Olympic hopeful tries to carve her path to Tokyo ... Klay Thompson makes his big debut as a reporter ... and Rivalry Week comes to CFB in a big way. Caroline Marks is 17 and is a surfing whirlwind. She has taken her sport by storm, risen to third position on the World Surf League standings, has a shot to become the youngest world champion in history over the next week, and with the most refreshing kind of teenage excitement, says that going to the Olympics would be “totally rad.” And yet, as surfing prepares to make its Games debut in Tokyo next summer as part of a major push by the International Olympic Committee to appeal to a younger audience, Marks is currently on the outside looking in. Heading into the final event of the WSL’s Championship Tour, the Lululemon Maui Pro in Hawaii, Marks sits behind the top two riders — Carissa Moore and Lakey Peterson — in the standings. There is an American logjam at the summit; both Moore and Peterson are also from the United States. According to the rules for surfing’s Olympic bow, a maximum of two women can qualify from any country. Moore and Peterson, unless Marks can unseat them over the coming days, are in the catbird seat. But teenage sports phenoms don’t get to the top by being frightened of disappointment, they do so by fearlessly chasing their dreams. Marks, hailing from Melbourne Beach, Fla. and now based in San Clemente, Calif., knows a triumph in Maui would get her to the Games, and depending on how Moore and Peterson finish, could also nab her a world title in the process. She’s won twice already this year, reached the podium six times from nine events, collected nearly $400,000 in prize money and immediately announced herself as a serious contender. [STORY IMAGE 1] “I know what I have to do to be in the Olympics and I’m just super stoked about the whole thing,” Red Bull athlete Marks told me via telephone. “Surfing is such a unique sport and it’s so very exciting because every wave is different, and there are always some kind of last-minute heroics where someone is waiting for the right wave to get the win. “We’re in this position where the top three in the world are all Americans, but there are only two places. That’s a tough situation, but it kind of makes it more exciting. Whoever gets there will have had to perform something special ... and I’d love it if it was me.” Surfing won its bid for inclusion on the Olympic schedule in 2015, when the IOC approved several applications – also adding skateboarding, karate and sport climbing, while bringing back baseball and softball. The Olympic event will be held at Shidashita Beach in Chiba, just outside Tokyo, with a competition window spread over 16 days to ensure the best quality of surf conditions possible. On the men’s side, the possibility that surf legend Kelly Slater could qualify at the age of 48 adds genuine intrigue — Slater’s fate will be decided in December. And despite the tense predicament the Olympic qualifying scenario has offered up for Marks, she can only find positives in the introduction of the sport to the Games. “Surfing has only been great for me,” she added. “I love it so much and I decided when I was 11 that this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I’m on the road maybe 11 out of every 12 months. I surf every day, twice a day, including competitions and surf trips. It’s a great life. And the more people get to see what surfing is all about, the better it is for everyone.” [STORY IMAGE 2] Olympic exposure can work wonders for a sport. Beach volleyball was introduced at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 and is now one of the most sought-after tickets at any Games. However the team shakes out, the American women’s surfing program is likely to get plenty of attention around Olympics time, whatever combination of Moore, Peterson and Marks gets to board the flight to Japan. That trio has wielded full dominance over the international field on tour this season and are expected to do so again in Hawaii over the coming days. If you’re looking for a guaranteed American gold medal next summer, the women’s surfing event might be the closest thing to it. If anything, for Moore, Peterson and Marks, getting to the Olympics might be the hardest part. “Having the Olympics be a part of surfing is so new and no one really knows what to expect from it,” Marks said. “But knowing that the opportunity is there, and having put myself in a position to have a chance? “That’s rad.” [STORY IMAGE 3] Here’s what others have said ... Kara Pound, Flamingo Magazine: “Like women in too many professions, female surfers have fought for decades for equal pay. Since the first professional tour for women began in 1975, females have been competing—and in the case of big-wave surfers, risking their lives—for a fraction of the prize money their male counterparts received. The disparity wasn’t just a few dollars. Men won six-figure prizes while women took home half to two-thirds less. A now-infamous November 1963 article in Surf Guide magazine by surfer Buzzy Trent titled ‘Big Waves Are Masculine, Women Feminine’ gives a glimpse of how drastically attitudes and culture have shifted.” Owen James Burke, SURFER Magazine: “Other countries that have had strong runners at the ISA Games in the past few years have been Barbados (particularly in the form of Chelsea Tuach), Venezuela and Scotland—all places with surf, but also places from which we haven’t seen much in the way of well-known competitive surfers. As of now, at least 11 nations are fairly sure to be represented. The rest, though, is nothing more than speculation. Who knows? Maybe another underdog nation could squeak through and wave their flag proudly in Tokyo.” Ashlee Tulloch, Olympic Channel : “This is where things get very interesting. There is one American men's spot left and currently that place is set to go to John John Florence. The Hawaiian is siting eighth in the world despite missing half of the season after rupturing his ACL. Chasing him for the second USA place is 11-time world champion Kelly Slater. The 47-year-old is 3,000 points behind the 27-year old and a real threat. John John has been teasing the surfing world with video and images on social media. If he does surf the Pipe Masters beginning December 8 he could well earn more points and deny Slater one accolade that he does not have — an Olympic Games on his curriculum vitae. Slater will need to finish above Florence at that event to earn enough points to overtake his Olympic qualifying rival.“ [IN OTHER WORDS] - Les Carpenter at [The Washington Post]( writes about Tress Way, the Redskins player who has mastered punting, cooking, and ping-pong. - Virginia has lost to Virginia Tech for 15 straight years. [Spencer Hall at]( [Banner Society]( offers up a nightmare journal of this lopsided rivalry. - The staff at [SLAM Magazine]( would like you to get to know their latest cover stars Sharife Cooper, Jalen Green and Josh Christopher — three of the best high school basketball players in the nation. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( Klay Thompson is likely missing the entire 2019-20 Warriors season due to surgery on a torn ACL, but he made a big comeback this week in a whole new role: as a sideline reporter and analyst for Golden State. His debut was a smashing success where NBA Twitter was concerned. He teamed up with Bill Walton for some delightfully batty commentary, reviewed his own bobbleheads, and usurped a postgame interview to just shoot the breeze with a teammate. More Reporter Klay, NBA television, please and thank you. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] Friday Night SmackDown (FOX, 8 p.m. ET) Universal Champion the Fiend had another dominant performance at Survivor Series. To celebrate, Bray Wyatt is planning on unveiling a “new face” on the Firefly Fun House. If you’re not quite sure what that means, we recommend tuning in. No. 1 Ohio State at No. 13 Michigan (FOX, Saturday, 12 p.m. ET) One of the biggest rivalries in sports could end up having a big impact. Jim Harbaugh has never been able to best OSU during his time as head coach of the Wolverines, but if he can pull off the underdog upset, it could shake up the entire CFB Playoff. Green Bay Packers at New York Giants (FOX, Sunday, 1 p.m. ET) The Packers came up short against the 49ers last week, but they’re hoping for a big rebound road game against the Giants, who are ... not quite the force the Niners have been this season. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Portland Trail Blazers to win first and second quarter against the Chicago Bulls: +135 If you haven’t been paying attention to the standings so far this season, you might think this is a more lopsided bet than it actually is. The Bulls are currently 6-13, while the Blazers are 7-12 — surprisingly Bulls-like. These two teams just played in Chicago on Monday and the Blazers won the second, third, and fourth quarters en route to a blowout win, so they may just have the Bulls’ number. [WHAT THEY SAID] "Failure I can live with. Not trying is what I can’t handle." — Sanya Richards-Ross [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. Trademark & Copyright Notice: ™ and © 2019 FOX Media LLC and FOX Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Please do not reply to this message. If you do not wish to receive emails like this in the future, please [unsubscribe](. FOX Sports respects your privacy. Click [here]( to view our Privacy Policy. FOX.com Business & Legal Affairs - Manager Digital Media P.O. Box 900 Beverly Hills, CA 90213-0900