15-Year-Old Olympic Surfing Hopeful Erin Brooks Banned from Team Canada

Erin Brooks is Canada’s next best hope for surfing stardom.

The 15-year-old was born in Texas, then raised in Hawaii. However, her father holds dual citizenship with America and Canada, so Brooks has opted to represent her Canadian roots for the ISA World Surfing Games and (hopefully) the 2024 Paris Olympics.

However, there’s been a bit of a snafu regarding her Canadian citizenship.

Following her performance at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador, in which she surfed to second place while representing Team Canada, the ISA released a statement revoking Brooks’ Canadian nationality qualifications.

As it turns out, her citizenship application has not yet been approved.

The statement reads:

“…it has now come to the attention of the ISA EC [Executive Committee] that in fact Ms. Brooks’ citizenship has still not been established. As a result, the EC has decided that Ms. Brooks’ eligibility to compete for Canada has been suspended with immediate effect.

“In the meantime, should the Canadian sport authorities be able to provide proof of citizenship with a verified document from the Canadian government, the ISA EC will re-evaluate her eligibility for Canada, in accordance with the applicable ISA rules.”

That decision from the ISA came as a shock to the Brooks family.

"There was no indication that this was coming, everything seemed fine, everything seemed to be moving forward," Erin's father, Jeff Brooks, told CBC. "This process has taken longer than any of us ever thought it would and I am still trusting in the COC and their efforts with the Canadian Immigration Minister to get Erin's citizenship issues resolved.

"I've told Erin to only focus on the things she can control which is to continue surfing and training. We are hopeful she will be reinstated soon and can get back on track to chasing her dream of representing Canada in the Olympics."

As for the ISA, which oversees surfing in the Olympics, they hope the issue will get resolved soon and the hiccup in Erin’s Olympic qualification will be amended.

The statement continued:

“The ISA takes responsibility for the administrative error made so we would like to express our deep regret and offer our apologies to Ms. Brooks and her family for the impact this case may have on her personally – with the hope that this case of her citizenship will be resolved promptly.”

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