Last year, just shortly before the opening ceremony of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, Jordy Smith took to Instagram to announce his withdrawal from the pending Games. “Ever since I can remember I have loved watching the Olympics,” Smith said in his post. “When surfing got into the games, and then to qualify was a dream come true. So it is with a heavy heart that today I have withdrawn from the Olympic Games in Tokyo. After a few weeks of sleepless nights I needed to face the reality that unfortunately my knee won’t be ready in time to compete at the highest level I need to win gold or medal. I plan on surfing at the highest level for many years to come and unfortunately waiting to do the surgery until after the Games was going to further jeopardize any chance of 100% recovery and potentially do further damage.”
The knee injury in question came about when Smith was visiting his home coast in Durban, scoring a day of punchy surf. What looked like the wave of the day ended up being the power-footed South African’s kiss of death. To see how the ill-fated wave went down, watch episode 4 of “Silver Linings” above and stay tuned for episode 5.
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