Tokyo gold is best rush
Fanning’s retirement won’t distract Gilmore from chasing Olympic glory
STEPHANIE Gilmore could see the time was coming for Mick Fanning but she has no plans to pull up stumps on her own career.
Six-time world champion Gilmore says competing at the Tokyo Games in 2020 when surfing makes its debut as an Olympic sport is “definitely” a goal.
Gilmore will start a 12th year on the World Surf League championship tour when the Roxy Pro kicks off the new season at Snapper Rocks from next week.
And she is determined to stay in the sport until at least 2020 in a bid to represent Australia at the Games.
“Just watching the Winter Olympics recently I was so inspired by all of the performances and to see the amount of pressure that happens during the Olympics is pretty wild,” Gilmore said. “But I’d love to qualify and win a gold medal, that’d be epic.”
Gilmore said she was “bummed out” when she first learnt Fanning would retire after the Bells Beach leg of the tour finishes in early April.
“I don’t know the tour without Mick Fanning,” Gilmore said.
“It’s sad really, I was bummed out when I first read that but I think we’ve all known that he’s wanted to retire for a while now.
“And Mick’s the kind of guy that when he does something he pours his heart and soul into it and that’s really draining.
“He was on tour for 17 years, so I can imagine that he was ready to hang it up.”
A six-time world champion, Gilmore though, is not yet ready to follow in Fanning’s footsteps.
“I love the tour. This is my 12th year on tour and I should be tired of it but I really keep my independence so I can be free and I don’t feel like I’m in a routine,” she said.
“I can kind of float around and I’m not too stressed that I’m missing something somewhere else or I’m missing home.
“The tour is as draining as you make it really and it’s up to you to make yourself at home in these places and around the world.
“Obviously we go to the same places every year but you’re still just going there to surf and I enjoy my travels so much.
“I have a good perspective when I get home and I see so many people in their routine, which is literally a nine-tofive routine, and it’s so easy to switch back into. I’ve got so much gratitude for this life that I live.
“Obviously it gets to a point where you go: OK, if I’m not winning and I’m not applying myself fully, then what’s the point?
“But I’m not at that point yet, I still love it and I still want to win.”
Gilmore heads into the Roxy Pro as the defending champion after winning that event and the Maui Women’s Pro to bookend the season with victories and finish just shy of a record-equalling seventh world title.