Olympic bronze medalist Owen Wright has introduced his retirement from aggressive browsing and can use the impending Bells Beach vintage as his swansong.
The 33-year-old isn’t competing in this 12 months’s World Surf League excursion after failing to qualify with the elite box now minimize mid-season.
The father of 2, whose sister is two-time international champion Tyler Wright, has opted to not compete at the Challenger sequence to try to rejoin the excursion.
Wright completed joint 5th on the Rip Curl Bells Beach closing 12 months and has been granted a wildcard for the 2023 version, which will get underway on the well-known Victorian wreck from 4 April.
With browsing making its Olympic debut in Tokyo in 2021, his bronze medal capped an inspirational comeback after a shattering wipe-out at Hawaii’s Pipeline in 2015 left Wright with a anxious mind damage.
He needed to learn how to stroll and surf once more, rejoining the highest excursion in 2017 and successful his first match again, at the Gold Coast, and topping the rostrum once more in 2019 in Tahiti.
Wright stated competing in large waves wasn’t the most productive factor for his well being and he would stroll away happy together with his achievements.
“After my traumatic brain injury in 2015, my desire to prove to myself and the world that I could still be great and overcome this life-threatening incident inspired my recovery,” Wright stated in a WSL commentary.
“Now 8 years later, after demanding situations and accomplishments, I will be able to glance again fortunately, realizing I accomplished that purpose.
“Given my fresh historical past with head accidents and concussions, competing at probably the most heaviest waves on the earth is not in the most productive passion of my long-term well being.
“I excelled in those prerequisites over my occupation, however the dangers related to this sort of browsing are too important for any person in my place, given my clinical historical past.
“I can no longer retire from browsing altogether – simply from browsing heavy waves. I’m hoping to stay browsing for the remainder of my lifestyles; I really like browsing and thank the game for the entirety I’ve.”
From the NSW south coast, Wright won four events through his WSL career which started back in 2010. He became the first competitor to surf two perfect heats in one event, scoring 10.0 at the 2015 Fiji Pro at Cloudbreak.
Wright stated he was hoping to proceed to make use of his platform to advertise consciousness about mind damage and concussion in athletes.