Thirteen Australians have been confirmed for 2024's World Surf League Championship Tour and can look forward to staking their claim to be crowned the world's best.
Gerroa's Sally Fitzgibbons, Jacob Willcox, India Robinson and Isabella Nichols have added their names to the roster of nine Aussies who qualified through last season's final Championship Tour rankings.
In the men's competition, Ethan Ewing will bid to go one better than his second-place finish in 2023 as he again suits up to challenge reigning world champion, Brazil's Filipe Toledo. Fellow Australians Jack Robinson and Ryan Callinan finished in the top-10 last time out, while Connor O'Leary was 11th.
Willcox qualified for the CT by virtue of finishing third in the WSL's 2023 Challenger Series, while surfing legend Kelly Slater has been handed a wildcard to take his place among the 36 men contesting the title.
South Coast star Tyler Wright was the highest-ranked Australian woman in 2023, finishing third in the rankings behind champion Caroline Marks and No.2 Carissa Moore. Wright will challenge on the CT again next season, where she will be joined by five of her countrywomen, including eight-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore.
Victoria's Robinson topped the rankings in the WSL's qualifying Challenger Series to return to the CT, with three-time world runner-up Fitzgibbons and Queensland's Nichols also making the step up.
The 2024 CT campaign will kick off at Hawaii's legendary Banzai Pipeline, with the mid-season cut at the season's halfway point following the Margaret River event in WA.
The season will conclude at the one-day WSL finals, where the top five men and women will battle for the world title.
"We're excited to welcome and officially confirm the new class of Championship Tour competitors," WSL's chief of sport Jessi Miley-Dyer said. "We're excited to see the potential of this year's rookie class and how they will rise to the occasion of competing against the best in the world."
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