With prompting, surfer Carissa Moore will tell you about her Olympic gold medal, her five world championships and her being seeded No. 1 for the 2022 Rip Curl WSL Finals in Southern California.
But as the season-ending event approached, she sounded just as happy to talk about what most surfers, and people in general, might prefer to hide.
“I have good days and bad days,’’ Moore, 30, told USA TODAY Sports, “and days when I have doubts and insecurities or start overthinking things.’’
Of course the good days include her winning a gold medal at the Tokyo Games last year in the first Olympic surfing competition. Moore also has won back-to-back WSL Finals and is in position to become the first surfer to three-peat.
Yet despite all of her success, Moore happily shares about her struggles. She has talked openly about hitting “rock bottom” in 2018, when she considered giving up competitive surfing because the pressure to succeed began to impact her personal life and marriage.
Her path back to dominance has included more openness about her trials and travails.
“I’ve found a lot of peace through being vulnerable,’’ Moore said. “I think it’s brought me closer together with a lot of people, and a lot of people have shared their stories and same insecurities with me. That has given me strength to overcome what I’m going through.
“I think by being vulnerable you get to own your own story and it almost takes the pressure off, because…
