Johanne Defay

Last updated

Johanne Defay
Defay (28592452346).jpg
Johanne Defay at the 2016 US Open of Surfing
Personal information
Born (1993-11-19) 19 November 1993 (age 30)
Le Puy-en-Velay, France
Residence La Réunion, France
Height5 ft 5.6 in (1.67 m)
Weight134 lb (61 kg)
Surfing career
Best yearRanked #3 WSL CT World Tour – 2022
SponsorsWakanda, GoPro Cameras, Smith Optics, Superdry Surf Company, Smoothstar Skateboards, Tim Spirit, Seventyone Percent Skincare
Major achievements
Surfing specifications
StanceNatural (regular) foot
Shaper(s)Channel Islands
Medal record
Women's surfing
Representing Flag of France.svg  France
Olympic Games
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2024 Paris Shortboard
World Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2017 Biarritz Team
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2017 Biarritz Women
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2023 La Bocana Team
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2024 Arecibo Team
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2023 La Bocana Women
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2024 Arecibo Women

Johanne Defay (born 19 November 1993) is a French professional surfer. She was born in Le Puy-en-Velay in the Auvergne region of France. She qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games where she won bronze.

Contents

She began surfing at the age of 8 off the beaches of Reunion Island, which is her home today. After Johanne's first competition when she was only ten years old, she quickly moved through the European amateur ranks to eventually take on the WSL World Qualifying Series. In 2008 Defay almost gave up competing. She was finding it difficult to transition from the juniors to the WQS and then the economy crashed causing many surf companies cancel their sponsorships. At that time, Johanne found herself without sponsors and also without decent results. However, with her parents’ encouragement, Johanne was able to qualify for the World Championship Tour within two years.

She has won five World Surf League events, the Vans US Open of Surfing 2015, the Fiji Women's Pro 2016, Uluwatu CT 2018, the Jeep Surf Ranch Pro 2021 [1] and the Quiksilver/ROXY Pro G-Land 2022.

Competitive highlights

Career victories

WCT Wins
YearEventVenueCountry
2024 MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal Supertubos, Peniche Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal
2022 Quiksilver/ROXY Pro G-Land G-Land, Banyuwangi Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia
2021 Jeep Surf Ranch Pro Lemoore, California Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
2018 Uluwatu CT - Women's Uluwatu, Bali Flag of Indonesia.svg  Indonesia
2016 Fiji Women's Pro Namotu, Tavarua Flag of Fiji.svg  Fiji
2015 Women's Vans US Open of Surfing Huntington Beach, California Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States

WSL World Championship Tour

Tournament2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Roxy Pro Gold Coast 13th13th3rd3rd9th5thCancel due to

covid-19 crisis [2]

Drug Aware Margaret River Pro 9th9th13th9thCanceled and

finished at Uluwatu [3]

9th
Rip Curl Women's Pro Bells Beach 13th5th5th5th5th9th
Rio Women's Pro 13th9th5th2nd9th9th
Corona Bali Protected ----13th9th
Uluwatu CT ----1st-
Fiji Women's Pro 5th3rd1st5th--
Corona open J-Bay ----5th5th
Vans US Open of Surfing 5th1st13th5th5th-
Swatch Women's Pro Trestles 3rd9th5th9th--
Surf Ranch Pro ----5th2nd
Roxy Pro France 3rd5th9th9th5th3rd
Cascais Women's Pro 5th5th3rd13th--
MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal -----5th
Maui Pro 5th9th13th13th5th5th
Rank8th8th5th9th5th8th

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelly Slater</span> American surfer (born 1972)

Robert Kelly Slater is an American professional surfer, best known for being crowned World Surf League champion a record 11 times. Slater is widely regarded as the greatest professional surfer of all time, and holds 56 Championship Tour victories. He won the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year four-times. Slater is also the oldest surfer still active on the World Surf League, winning his 8th Billabong Pipeline Masters title at age 49.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sofía Mulánovich</span> Peruvian surfer (born 1983)

Sofía Mulánovich Aljovín is a Peruvian surfer. She is a 3-time World Surfing Champion, 1 WSL and 2 ISA world championships,. She is the first Peruvian surfer ever to win a World Surf League World Championship Tour event and the first Latin American woman ever to win the World Title, which she did in 2004 In 2004, she won three out of the six World Championship Tour events, and finished the season as Absolute World Champion. Sofia is the only one Latin-american surfer to win 2 ISA World Championships. Sofia won the ISA Championships, 2004 in Salinas-Ecuador and 2019 in Miyazaki-Japan. Her main sponsor is Roxy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Surf League</span> Governing body for professional surfers

The World Surf League (WSL) is the governing body for professional surfers and is dedicated to showcasing the world's best talent in a variety of progressive formats. The World Surf League was originally known as the International Professional Surfing founded by Fred Hemmings and Randy Rarick in 1976. IPS created the first world circuit of pro surfing events. In 1983 the Association of Surfing Pros took over management of the world circuit. In 2013, the ASP was acquired by ZoSea, backed by Paul Speaker, Terry Hardy, and Dirk Ziff. At the start of the 2015 season, the ASP changed its name to the World Surf League. Sophie Goldschmidt was appointed as WSL CEO on 19 July 2017. Paul Speaker had stepped down as CEO on 11 January 2017, and Dirk Ziff acted as the interim WSL CEO until Goldschmidt's appointment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Keala Kennelly</span> American surfer and actor

Keala Kennelly is a professional surfer, DJ, and actress from Kauai, Hawaii. After spending a decade ranked in the top 10 on the ASP World Championship Tour (WCT), Kennelly took a break from the tour in 2007 to explore her passions for acting and music, including a recurring role as a surfer in the 2007 series John from Cincinnati. She continues to DJ and compete as a big wave surfer.

Rochelle Ballard is an American professional surfer and a veteran of the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Championship Tour. She co-founded International Women's Surfing (IWS) and has appeared in several movies and television shows, most notably, Blue Crush,Step Into Liquid, and Beyond the Break.

Stephanie Louise Gilmore is an Australian professional surfer and eight-time world champion on the Women's WSL World Tour.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carissa Moore</span> American surfer (born 1992)

Carissa Kainani Moore is an American surfer. She was the first-ever winner of the Olympic gold medal in women's shortboard surfing at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She is also a five-time world champion, winning in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2021 on the World Surf League WSL Women's World Tour. Moore was the first surfer in history to win a WSL world title and the Olympic title in the same year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sally Fitzgibbons</span> Australian surfer (born 1990)

Sally Fitzgibbons is an Australian professional surfer on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour (2009–2013). In June 2019, she was ranked No. 1 in the world for women's surfing after winning the Rio Pro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adriano de Souza</span> Brazilian surfer

Adriano "Mineirinho" de Souza is a Brazilian professional surfer and also the 2015 WSL World Champion. He has been competing on the World Surf League Men's World Tour since 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coco Ho</span> American surfer

Coco Malia Camille Hapaikekoa Ho is a professional Hawaiian surfer born in Honolulu, Hawaii. She began surfing at 7 years old, following in the footsteps of her family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gabriel Medina</span> Brazilian professional surfer (born 1993)

Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira is a Brazilian professional surfer. He won the 2014, 2018 and 2021 WSL World Championships, and has the second-most World Titles, behind Kelly Slater. He qualified for the 2024 Olympic Games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malia Manuel</span> American surfer

Kelsey Malia Manuel is an American professional surfer. She won Rookie of the Year in 2012 and was ranked 5th on the 2014 ASP World Tour. In 2008, at the age of 14 she became the youngest surfer ever to win the U.S. Open of Surfing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikki van Dijk</span> Australian professional surfer (born 1994)

Nikki van Dijk is an Australian professional surfer. She has been a touring competitor in the World Surf League, the top flight of international professional surfing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filipe Toledo</span> Brazilian surfer

Filipe Toledo is a Brazilian professional surfer who has competed on the World Surf League Men's World Tour since 2013. He is a second-generation pro who grew up outside of Ubatuba, Brazil on the northeastern coast of the state of São Paulo. His father, and long-time coach, Ricardo, was a two-time national champion. In 2014, as his career took flight, Filipe convinced his entire family to move to San Clemente, California.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ítalo Ferreira</span> Brazilian surfer

Ítalo Ferreira is a Brazilian professional surfer hailing from a small community of Baía Formosa, in Rio Grande do Norte on the northeastern coast of Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Courtney Conlogue</span> American professional surfer

Courtney Conlogue is an American professional surfer. She was born in Santa Ana, California. Courtney learned to surf at the age of 4. In 2004 when she was 11, Conlogue was the youngest athlete to be selected to the USA Junior Surf Team. She went on to achieve 11th place in the 2005 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships. In 2009, at the ISA World Surfing Games in Costa Rica, Courtney won an individual and team Gold Medal as a USA Surfing Team member. By the time she was 14, she had won a surfing gold medal as a member of the U.S.A. Team at the X Games. When she was 16 she won the biggest competition in the USA at the Hurley U.S. Open of Surfing, held at her home break in Huntington Beach, California. She won the US Open of Surfing again in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bianca Buitendag</span> South African professional surfer

Bianca Buitendag is a South African professional surfer. She has represented South Africa at the 2020 Summer Olympics where she won silver in the women's shortboard competition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tatiana Weston-Webb</span> Brazilian-American surfer

Tatiana Guimarães Weston-Webb is a Brazilian–American surfer based in Kauai, Hawaii. She was the only rookie on the WCT in 2015. Weston-Webb wears jersey number 9, and her 2016 'CT rank is number 4. She competed in both the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics for Brazil, winning silver in the latter.

Justine Dupont French professional surfer

Justine Dupont is a French professional surfer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bronte Macaulay</span> Australian surfer (born 1994)

Bronte Macaulay is an Australian professional surfer. She competes in the World Surf League.

References

  1. Boxscore World Sportswire (21 June 2021). "Johanne Defay and Filipe Toledo Win Jeep Surf Ranch Pro presented by Adobe". boxscorenews.com. Retrieved 21 June 2021.
  2. "Breaking: 2020 WSL Tour Canceled". 17 July 2020.
  3. "Cancelled Margaret River Event to Finish at Uluwatu". 10 May 2018.