Owen Wright (born 16 January 1990) is an Australian professional surfer on the

World Surf League The World Surf League (WSL) is the governing body for professional surfers and is dedicated to showcasing the world's best talent in a variety of progressive formats. The World Surf League was originally known as the International Professional ...

(formerly the Association of Surfing Professionals) Men's Championship Tour. His sister,

Tyler Wright Tyler Wright (born April 6, 1973) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played in 613 NHL games with the Edmonton Oilers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets, and Mighty Ducks of Anaheim. He currently serves as director ...

, is also a competitor on the

Championship Tour. In the 2020

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Olympics The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...

Wright Owen Wright battled

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, past injury and rough seas to take Australia's first surfing Olympic bronze medal. Just being named in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Team was one of the great comebacks in Australian sport after his bad experience in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

in late 2015.

Australia at the 2020 Summer Olympics Australia competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Originally scheduled to take place from 24 July to 9 August 2020, the Games were postponed to 23 July to 8 August 2021, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Australia is one of only five cou ...

details the results in depth. On 16 June 2015 Wright became the first surfer to post two perfect scores in a single event, during Round 5 and the final of the Fiji Pro.

Personal life

Wright was born on 16 January 1990 and grew up at

Culburra Beach Culburra Beach, commonly referred to as Culburra, is a town located in the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia. Located within the Shoalhaven local government area, the town is east-southeast of Nowra on Jerrinja Wandi Wandian Abo ...

on the south coast of New South Wales. He has no cousins but he has 5 siblings who all surf. His sister

is a two-time Women's World Champion, winning the Women's Championship Tour in 2016 and 2017. Their brother Mikey competes on the Men's Championship Tour as well. As a junior, along with his sister Tyler and fellow south coast local World Tour competitor

Sally Fitzgibbons Sally Jayne Fitzgibbons (born 19 December 1990) is an Australian professional surfer on the Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour (2009–2013). In June 2019, she was ranked No. 1 in the world for women's surfing after winning the R ...

, he competed in GromSearch, a national series development program that gives under 16 year olds competition experience against top senior surfers. Wright is married to Australian singer

Kita Alexander Nikkita Kalea "Kita" Alexander (born 25 February 1996) is an Australian pop singer-songwriter from Brisbane, Queensland, known for her 'short and evocative lines demonstrating Taylor Swift-level lyrical prowess.' Her single "Hotel", peaked a ...

. They have a son born in December 2016 and a daughter born in January 2021.

Professional career

Wright won the Australian title in 2007 and qualified for the Champions Tour in 2009. In his 2010 debut season he ranked seventh, and was named Rookie of the Year. In 2011 he won his first Champions Tour event at

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

receiving surfing’s largest-ever prize of $300,000. During the 2015 tour, Wright won his second title at the Fiji Pro event scoring two perfect 10-point rides. This was the first time such a score had been achieved at the one event and he was only the fifth surfer to ever achieve a perfect 20. The win took him to third place in the 2015 season's standings. In December, in the lead up to the

Pipeline Masters The Billabong Pipeline Masters is an event in surfing held annually at Banzai Pipeline in Oahu, Hawaii. It was established in 1971, and has been sponsored by Billabong since 2007. The event attracts the top 34 surfers from The World Surf Lea ...

, the final event of the 2015 calendar, he had a wipe out at

Banzai Pipeline The Banzai Pipeline, or simply Pipeline or Pipe, is a surf reef break located in Hawaii, off Ehukai Beach Park in Pupukea on O'ahu's North Shore. A reef break is an area in the ocean where waves start to break once they reach the shallows of a r ...

in Hawaii. Wright suffered a

traumatic brain injury A traumatic brain injury (TBI), also known as an intracranial injury, is an injury to the brain caused by an external force. TBI can be classified based on severity (ranging from mild traumatic brain injury TBI/concussionto severe traumatic b ...

and had to relearn how to talk, walk and then surf again. He recorded his recovery steps on social media. Owen is now championing the use of safety helmets while surfing to protect surfers from wipeout injuries. After spending 2016 recovering, Wright was granted a wildcard entry to the 2017 World Surf League season. In his comeback, Wright won the Champions Tour calendar's opening event, the Quiksilver Pro at Snapper Rocks on Australia's

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

. It was his third WSL title. In between WSL events, Wright trained with

Surfing Australia Surfing Australia is the governing body for the sport of surfing in Australia. History The Australian Surfriders Association was founded in 1963, and was renamed Surfing Australia in 1993. In 2013, for its 50th anniversary, Surfing Australi ...

's national squad preparing for the debut of

surfing Surfing is a surface water sport in which an individual, a surfer (or two in tandem surfing), uses a board to ride on the forward section, or face, of a moving wave of water, which usually carries the surfer towards the shore. Waves suitabl ...

at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games where he won a bronze medal.

Career victories

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Owen 1990 births Living people People from the South Coast (New South Wales) People from the Northern Rivers Australian surfers World Surf League surfers Sportsmen from New South Wales Olympic surfers of Australia Surfers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Australia Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in surfing