SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — A top ranked surfer competing in the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer grew up in San Diego County.
Caitlin Simmers, 18, is ranked No. 1 on the Women's Championship Tour for the World Surf League. Already this year, she won the Lexus Pipe Pro at Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii in February and then took first place in the Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in Australia in late March/early April.
This is only her second year on the World Surf League Championship Tour, but she's already making her mark.
"I'm pretty pumped that I can be part of it, I'm pretty honored to be where I am," Simmers previously told CBS 8.
She could have been on the tour in 2022, at just 16, but she said she passed to stay at home in Oceanside and focus on friends and family.
"I don't regret it for a second," she said.
Simmers started surfing when she was six years old. She also grew up doing dance, martial arts, skateboarding and little league baseball, where she was a pitcher and a shortstop. She attended Coastal Academy High School in Oceanside.
In addition to surfing, in 2023 Simmers directed, edited and starred in a 23-minute surf film called "Toasted."
Surfing at the Olympics
Surfing only recently became an Olympic sport.
"I never really thought about the Olympics as something that I could be able to do," Simmers said.
Surfing fans started campaigning to add the sport to the Olympics in the 1920s, according to the Olympics website. Surfing finally made its Olympic debut in 2021 in Tokyo.
"It's pretty amazing that I'm going to be in it," Simmers said.
For the 2024 Paris games, the competition will take place at Teahupo'o in Tahiti. See the full surfing schedule for the Summer Olympics here.
WATCH RELATED: Full interview with top women's surfer, Caity Simmers (May 16, 2024)