Leilani McGonagle, Expression of Female Capacity

AUTHOR: Dagmar Reinhard

Leilani McGonagle is a Costa Rican Olympic athlete, proud of having achieved her first conquests in Pavones (beach famous for having the longest waves in Costa Rica). At the 2020/21 Tokyo Olympics, she obtained the inaugural surfing spot thanks to the successful participation in the 2021 World Surfing Games in El Salvador.

Her rise that places her among the best surfers in the world was meteoric and in 2022 Afridun Amu from Afghanistan, Leilani McGonagle from Costa Rica, Leandro Usuna from Argentina and Natasha van Greunen from South Africa were elected to integrate the World Commission of International Surfing Athletes (ISA). Leilani was chosen for this position because she is a very successful athlete on the water and highly academically prepared with a degree in Communication from California State University, Bakersfield.

This commission represents the interests of Surfing athletes from more than 110 nations of the world before the Board of Directors of the ISA, the governing entity of Surfing worldwide. Leilani McGonagle, from the South Pacific of Costa Rica, reached the top of World Surfing with this appointment.

In October of this year, she participated in the first face-to-face meeting of the ISA Athletes Commission in Biarritz, France, led by its president Mrs. Justine Dupont (France), and where they presented strategies and objectives. The classification for the Panamanian Games and the Olympic Games in Paris 2024 were also discussed.

The official ISA statement indicated that “The composition of the Athletes Commission has representation from four continents and is made up of more than 50% women, which exemplifies further the evolution of gender equality within the sport of surfing”. In addition, the commission represents a variety of surfing disciplines including shortboard, longboard, SUP surf, SUP race and para surfing.

Leilani from the first elected athletes in history to a Commission of Surf Athletes, created from the inclusion of this sport as an Olympic discipline. It's an amazing time for surfing with all these opportunities. The collaboration of international athletes through surfing is forging a better future for the ISA.

Message from Leilani: “My goal is to continue representing my country and surfing in the best possible way. I think part of this comes with a responsibility to make our sport a more equitable, fair and beneficial place for future generations.”