By 
Surfer Caroline Marks Gold Medal 2024 Olympics Surfing
Surfer Caroline Marks, who grew up in Brevard County, Florida, won the Olympic gold medal for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Imagine an alternate universe where Caroline Marks still won an Olympic gold medal in 2024, but in an event that wasn’t surfing.
That event: Equestrian.
Marks, who grew up in Melbourne Beach, Florida, began riding horses at a young age and thought her future might lie on those magnificent animals.
But then, her older brother Luke got her interested in a sport that, in this universe, became her special talent. Of course, that was surfing.
Within one calendar year, Marks won her first World Surf League championship and an Olympic gold medal.
She is only the second woman to ever accomplish this, behind Carissa Moore, who did the same thing during the prior Olympics and 2021 WSL season.
At age 22, the world is Marks’ oyster.
She’s young, she’s talented, and she has a winning smile that would be great for commercials, TV shows, movies or whatever else she sets her sights on.
Marks grew up surfing in the south beaches of Brevard County, a place where most of her family still resides.
Marks herself lives in California, traveling the world and living out the dreams of just about any 22-year-old on the planet.
I recently caught up with Marks, who went right from the Olympics to an event in Fiji, once she got back to the U.S.
She was still trying to process her victories this past month, but she also has an amazing perspective far beyond her 22 years.
Here’s the Q&A I conducted with the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medal surfer.
Follow along: Want to see pics and learn more about Caroline Marks? Check out her Instagram page
Staying focused even during Olympic surfing weather delays
Walters: There were a lot of delays during the Olympic surfing competition, a lot of bad weather, a lot of standby, how were you able to stay in there mentally and physically as things kept getting pushed back, the conditions weren’t great, how were you able to handle all of that?
Marks: I think that’s probably one of the hardest things, but also like the beauty of our sport at the same time. It’s hard to wait and the anticipation builds up, you don’t really know exactly when your heat’s going to go. That’s what makes surfing so unique is we’re relying on Mother Nature. And I think as a surfer, I’m pretty used to it, but I think just like knowing when to turn your mind on and off is really helpful because to be on and focused that whole time and just thinking about the event sometimes can be almost too much.
So I feel like, you know, let’s just say you have four days off. It’s kind of nice maybe to get your mind to do something else. Go on a hike or hang out with family or friends and obviously still surf, but kind of just like really go off. I really go off how I feel and so for me having my family there this time was so amazing.
Obviously in Tokyo we didn’t have that, so to have my family support there on those late days was really huge. It’s hard because you’re only thinking about the gold medal. You’re only thinking about the event and when … you don’t know exactly how the waves are gonna be. It can be a little bit hard, but like I said, that’s the beauty of our sport and just kind of gotta go with the flow.
Walters: As they kept pushing the event back, they didn’t explain the rules too well to us watching at home. So supposedly it was, there was an 11-day stretch for the competition, and you won on the 11th day, but we weren’t really clear. Let’s say rain and lightning had come again. What would have happened? Would they have pushed it to a 12th day? Would they have just taken your aggregate scores? What would have happened?
Marks: I don’t know. We do have a waiting period and I think they needed I think four days to run the whole event. So four full days, and one of the days I had like half a day so that last day really came in handy for them. I think they probably would have looked at the weather forecast and been like, alright, if it’s supposed to be thunder and lightning this day, maybe they would run it the day before. But yeah, they obviously try to pick the very best conditions for us to compete in. And sometimes, you know, every day was contestable, but they want to pick the very best condition. So the last day just looked like the best day and so they just kind of waited for that.
Walters: It certainly worked out for you, that’s for sure. In you’re opening round, you had a big victory, but in some of the other rounds there were some pretty close calls. Was there a day or an opponent where you were like, ‘Ohh gosh, I might not make it.’ Or did you feel confident the whole time?
Marks: I kind of look at it like everyone’s really good. Everyone’s really hard to beat, every single heat’s really hard, but also I carried a lot of confidence knowing that if I get my waves and do my thing, I can hopefully do really well. Obviously everyone, if you’re at the Olympics at the highest level, everyone there is really good and really talented, really capable. So every single heat I went into no matter if it was the first round up until the final, I was definitely trying my hardest and very aware of how hard it was.
Marks reflects on her winning heat
Walters: Take me up to that last day. You’ve got to get through two rounds that day (semifinals and finals). You won early and then you had to surf later. So just take us through that final day where you finally won gold.
Marks: It was really exciting to compete again. Obviously, we had a couple days off before and that was almost like the most stressful time to wait just cuz we knew my next heat (was) the heat to get into the medal round. So there’s definitely a lot of anticipation, a lot of build-up. And yeah, I had a heat against Johanne (Defay). It was really close. I needed a seven to win and literally got a 7 on the dot, so to win that heat against Johanne I think was a really big standout moment for me. In Tokyo (in 2021) I got fourth place. So I came up one short of a medal, so that definitely stung really bad. So to win that heat against Johanne and make it into the gold medal match really meant a lot to me. And I actually got really emotional in that moment.
And then, yeah, once I was in the final, I kind of regrouped and just watched the conditions, and the waves were getting bigger that day and they’re getting a little better. So that was exciting, and I actually rode a different board from my semifinal to my final, just within a couple hours. And then, just regroup for the final and won the gold medal and that was another close heat as well. We’re waiting for the score at the end, so it’s definitely nerve wracking but, ahh, just the best feeling ever. Really surreal. Surreal is like the word that comes to mind … that moment was very surreal.
Walters: We’ve all seen the video of you on the jet ski and the pictures and holding up the flag and the ear to ear smile. When it was finally done, you’re an Olympic gold medalist for the United States. What were you thinking at that moment?
Marks: Oh, it’s so crazy. It’s kind of like in the moment you’re just like, ‘oh my gosh. Like, did that just happen?’ kind of thing, but yeah, I was just really overwhelmed with joy and happiness and felt really proud just to represent my country. Really honored and I just really wanted to see my family and just give them a big hug. And I was just really excited, I had never felt that feeling before. It was a pretty incredible feeling for sure. Just yeah, to hold that flag is something that I’ve dreamed of, you know, is a dream come true in that moment. So it was incredible and something I’ll never forget.
Who is the first person Caroline Marks called after winning Gold
Walters: You talk about having your family there. Usually a question I ask people who have won a title or a championship, or now a gold medal, is who’s the first person you called. But with so much family there, was there still somebody that you had to call on the phone right away?
Marks: I’m from a big family. I’m one of six, so my whole family wasn’t there, just my parents and my two younger siblings. So all my brothers, they weren’t there. They’re just watching online, and so I called my older brother. He’s the reason why I got into surfing. So I actually didn’t talk to anyone that day. I wasn’t really on my phone. I really wanted to be in the moment, so after I talked to my parents and hugged them and celebrated with them, I FaceTimed my brother. That’s the first person I wanted to call. I just wanted to talk to my older brother. He is the reason why I started surfing. So I just felt it necessary.
Walters: What’s the name of your brother? Give him a shout out.
Marks: Luke, my older brother Luke.
Two big surfing wins for Marks in same 12-month span
Walters: Now you have a gold medal, and that follows a World Surf League championship all in the same 12-month span. I won’t ask you which is better because they’re both amazing and I’d hate to make you pick, it would be like picking between two children. But what does it mean to you to have won both of those things in the same year?
Marks: Yeah, I appreciate you not letting me pick because a lot of people have been asking me to choose and I’m like, well, I just want both, and in a perfect world you have both, and thankfully I have both, but yeah, they both mean, you know so much to me, equally as much. And gosh, I mean, to win a world title was a dream for me and now a gold medal. I mean, those are my two biggest goals in my career. That to me, that’s the pinnacle.
So to have both is pretty unbelievable. And yeah, to do it in 12 months is pretty wild. It’s definitely been, you know, the best of year in my life for sure. And I’ve just been having so much fun along the way, which has been amazing. So I feel like it’s not only been my best year competitively, but it’s been my best year personally with my personal life too, which has been so awesome. And yeah, I just feel like I’m in a really good place and having a lot of fun, enjoying surfing. I’m enjoying the people around me and I’m just loving it. So yeah, I just feel really grateful to be in the position I’m in and I’m just gonna keep trying really hard and hopefully keep getting better.
When will Brevard get to see Caroline Marks again?
Walters: You’re future is certainly bright, and we’re going to talk about future things in a minute, but I want to talk a little bit about the past first. I’m here in Brevard County, where you grew up doing much of your surfing. I’m about 25 minutes, maybe 30 minutes from Melbourne Beach where you were surfing those waves there and, we haven’t seen you in a while. You basically went right out to another surfing competition after the Olympics. You probably just got home in California where you now live. Are you planning to come back with your gold medal to Brevard County to show it off to a county that’s beaming with pride for you?
Marks: Yeah, absolutely. I really wanna go back to Florida. I’m really looking forward to it. Like you said, I haven’t had any time. I was home for one day. Pit stop in California in between time I won the gold medal up until now. And yeah, back home now and competing for the next world title here. I’d love to come home. My brother gets married in November, so I’m gonna spend a bit of time there then and yeah, like I said, not exactly sure when this next event’s gonna run, so we’ll kind of base it off that. But I’m definitely really excited to get back to Florida and see my friends and family and everyone that cheered me on. And yeah, 100% have plans to come back to Florida, for sure.
Caroline Marks on being part of a big family
Walters: You’re the third of six children, so what was it like growing up in such a busy household, and how did that love of surfing, you mentioned your brother, where did that come from? How early an age were you getting out there on the waters of Brevard County?
Marks: Growing up with a big family is a lot of fun. It’s definitely wild and crazy, but it’s kind of like having a ton of built-in best friends and always something going on. You’re always entertained. There’s always someone to hang out with. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.
I actually grew up horseback riding and my oldest brother surfed, my two older brothers surfed, my brothers Luke and Zach, and I kind of just thought surfing was their thing and riding horses was my thing and whatever, but I’ve always loved the ocean. Always been in love with the ocean.
And yeah, when I was about 8 or 9, I just really wanted to be like my brothers. And I looked up to them so much, I still do. But then they’re like my biggest idols and really wanted to impress them and for them to think I was cool. And so I kind of started to realize like, well, I have to do what they think is cool and that’s surfing because they love surfing. And so that’s why I started surfing, as just to really impress them and be like them. I started surfing and everything kind of happened really fast for me.
And there is a lot of constructive criticism going on, for sure. My brothers are a little bit brutal with me, but in a very supportive way and never discouraging, just they’re very honest with me and I think they’re a huge part of the reason why I’m in the position I am today and I owe a lot of thanks to them because yeah, they’re the reason why I started surfing. They push me the most and still to this day I still look for their approval. So yeah, just it’s really fun to have a big family, though, and we’re all really close. My parents raised us to where we basically talk every day, which is really cool to say. And yeah, they’re just like all my best friends. It’s fun.
Walters: Are a bunch of them still here in Florida?
Marks: Yeah, the whole family is in Florida. So yeah, they’re all still back there.
Caroline Marks and the Kelly Slater connection
Walters: In Brevard County, where you grew up, there had been one name in surfing here for three decades. And now you have made it two names associated with Brevard County. The other, of course, being Kelly Slater. Did you talk to him at all going into the Olympics, or have you talked to him much since you won your world title to get a little wisdom from Kelly?
Marks: Yeah, actually he was texting me every day when I was in Tahiti and he was just giving me some insights on the lineup and what he thought. So he actually was helping me out and giving me some pointers, which is really cool. So I appreciate that a lot from him. Obviously, the advice he gives me, I feel like a sponge. Just want to absorb it and I really take it all in and when I was just in Fiji (at the Corona Fiji Pro) I caught up with him as well. So that was really cool.
Walters: Speaking of Kelly Slater, I saw the WSL released their 2025 schedule and one of them is at the new Kelly Slater Wave Pool in Abu Dhabi. So I’m curious if you’re familiar with that, have you gotten to test it out or any of his wave pools for that matter?
Marks: Yeah, I’ve surfed the one here in California a ton. I’ve competed out there a few times. I made the final out there last year. I’m really excited to go to Abu Dhabi. I went last year after I won the title, I think in October. Kelly invited a few of us to go there and test it out right when it opened. And so I got to test it and it was really fun. It was really cool experience and we were trying all these different settings and stuff. So yeah, it’s a lot of fun, and I’m excited to go there. I never thought I’d be competing in Abu Dhabi. That’s like really cool to say, and it’s obviously a very fun wave so I’m looking forward to it.
Walters: How different is surfing something like that as opposed to surfing out in the ocean?
Marks: I think a lot of times in the ocean, you know, half the battle is reading the ocean and finding that wave and knowing where to paddle and where to sit and all these things. And so obviously with the wave pool, it eliminates that and it’s more just like performance driven and exactly what you wanna do, everyone’s getting the same opportunity, the same platform. So it’s more like other sports where it’s a controlled environment. So it’s a little different in that way, but obviously everyone in surfing has a different style and a different approach. So it’s still unique in that way. But yeah, I think it’ll be really fun.
Looking ahead to 2028 Olympics
Walters: Being that you live out in California, the 2028 games will be held in your backyard, which is nice. You don’t have to travel very far away, although, you know, going to Tahiti’s not bad either, but there are a few different places where they could be holding the surfing out there. It could be Huntington Beach. It could be Lower Trestles, it could be Slater’s wave pool, depending on the conditions. So, do you have a preference or have you been let in on what they’re considering for that?
Marks: Yeah, I’ve had a few conversations with a few different people about where they want to run it. I think, as a surfer, Lower Trestles is obviously a better wave and it’s a lot of fun. So personally I would love to surf at Lower Trestles. At the same time, I wouldn’t say it would fit the crowd as well as somewhere like Huntington. Huntington, you have a really big stadium. It’s a really big beach. It would fit a lot more people to watch in person, so there’s that factor as well, but either way, I just think to compete in my hometown, to represent my country is just gonna be incredible. So wherever they run it, my goal is just to be there and make it, but yeah, if they have it at Lower it would be awesome. Huntington would be great. So we’ll see what happens.
Hearing from Mark Zuckerberg
Walters: Who is the biggest celebrity or the coolest person that has reached out to you since winning the gold to tell you congratulations?
Marks: Ooo, you know, I actually haven’t even, I didn’t really look through my Instagram, DMS or anything, but Mark Zuckerberg commented on my post a couple times, which was pretty cool, and so I’d say he’s probably the coolest person that reached out to me, which was pretty awesome.
Walters: Hey, anytime one of the 10 richest people in the world reaches out to you that that’s not a bad day, right?
Marks: For sure.
Caroline Marks on her other goals: girl surf film
Walters: At age 22, you have a World Surf League title, you have a gold medal. You’re obviously looking to the Olympics again in four years, but are there other goals that you’re starting to set for yourself aside from surfing, maybe looking at TV, maybe looking at whatever else it may be, are you starting to look at other options?
Marks: Yeah, for sure. I think obviously right now as far as my career, I would love to win more titles and more gold medals and be in as many Olympics as I can be and just really push my surfing and become better at my craft. I think there’s a lot of room for improvement because I’m so young and that’s really exciting to me. I feel like I can get a lot better within the next however many years, which is so fun. I really want to work on a movie, like an all girl surf film is another really big goal of mine, so I’d say that’s my next big goal. Still to do with surfing but not like competitive surfing. So that’d be really fun. And then after that, we’ll see what happens. But yeah, right now it just really still focused on winning, and just winning more would be really fun.
Walters: In Cocoa Beach, where the North and South lanes of A1A come back together, there’s obviously the famous Kelly Slater surf statue. Being from Melbourne Beach, whereabouts in Melbourne Beach could you plot to have a statue of you someday if you continue to do the right kind of winning, which it seems you will?
Marks: Oh, I don’t know. I mean, wherever they would have me, I’d be stoked. Yeah, that would be a really big honor. I know that Kelly statue is a really famous one. I know they just named a park after me, I heard. So that’s really fun somewhere in Melbourne Beach, which is pretty crazy to think about. And yeah, just really cool. But yeah, wherever they’d have me would be an honor. I love my little town that I grew up in and would be stoked to have a statue there, it would be awesome.
Walters: Is that a place where you were surfing a lot? The beach area where they named it after you? Or do you have to kind of come back and check it out to see where it is?
Marks: I mean, I feel like growing up, I kind of surfed the whole stretch of Melbourne Beach, just wherever the waves were better. So yeah, it’s definitely somewhere I surfed a lot.
“Enjoy the ride”
Walters: Caroline, is there any other messages you’d like to get out in front of the audience? Anything else you’d like to say, here is your opportunity.
Marks: I’d say just follow your dreams and have fun and enjoy life. Enjoy the ride.
Walters: And one bonus question, do you miss the space launches here from Brevard County?
Marks: Yeah, I mean, I love Florida. I love being back there. I look forward every time I go back there, so yeah, I miss a lot of things about Florida, but when I go back and visit it’s just that much sweeter.
Walters: We gotta plan this out. Another billionaire, Elon Musk, he should give you a hero’s welcome. SpaceX is launching rockets like 2 or 3 times a week.
Marks: Ohh, let’s put out into the universe … Elon. If you if you hear this interview, it’d be really cool. So we’ll put it out in the universe. It’d be awesome.
Walters: When I tweet this out, I will add you and I will add Elon, maybe by some chance he’ll check it out.
Marks: You never know.
Caroline Marks is competing for her second WSL title during the Lexus WSL Finals being held Sept. 6-14 at Lower Trestles in San Clemente, California.
Following the Olympics, the town of Melbourne Beach renamed Ocean Park, at the corner of Ocean Avenue and A1A, after Marks.
