Breaking: At 51 Kelly Slater Announces an Upsetting News for Surfing Fans

Every journey comes to an end one day. It looks like it’s time for the surfing legend Kelly Slater to put an end to his professional surfing journey. Slater has been making plans for retirement for quite some time now and once hinted at it after the 2019 season. However, with such a decorated career in the sport, he deserves nothing but a grand ending. Therefore, Slater wants to pull the plugs after one last Olympics game.

Slater has been a part of the competitive surfing world for nearly three decades. Though the champion plans to surf even in his 90s, he wouldn’t be doing so in the competitive leagues anymore. In a recent interview, Slater shed light on his plans after the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kelly Slater, to retire after the 2024 Olympics?

Recently, Kelly Slater appeared in an interview with the Guardian Australia. Herein, Slater majorly came to promote the second season of his Apple TV+ series, Make or Break. The series is about World Surf Leagues. Apart from promoting the series, Slater talked about his expectations for his surfing career. He wishes to make it to the 2024 Paris Olympics. After that, he’ll bid his goodbye to the competitive surfing world. Slater said, “If I make the Olympics, I’ll retire at the Olympics.”

Furthermore, Slater revealed that although he anticipates qualifying for the tournament, he realizes he needs to get his “bu** into gear” to achieve it. The selection process will be nowhere near easy. However, if Slater manages to get past that hurdle, the 51-year-old is confident about bringing home a medal. It is because of the location of the said event. The 2024 Olympics will be taking place in Tahiti. It is the very same location where Slater has won World Surf Leagues 5 times.

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He continued, “…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.” If his plans do work out, then the 2024 Olympics will mark the end of another great inning of a legendary surfer. However, this brings up the question: if Slater can still surf, then why retire?

Why is the King planning to retire?

In 2016, during an interview with Stab Mag, the then-44-year-old Slater first touched on the topic of retirement. The Champion revealed he felt old, not mentally but physically. Playing an adventure thrill sport like surfing, one is bound to sustain injuries along the way. So has Kelly Slater.

At the time in 2016, Slater was working hard to recover from his injuries to be strong enough to compete in the next world tour. His intentions weren’t to retire at that time. Instead, he revealed he wanted to surf even in his 90s. However, with time and depending on how much his body can take, those plans seem to have changed.

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Now the surfing GOAT plans to retire after competing in one last Olympics.