Fitzgibbons, Gilmore book Olympic places

The pair have earned two of the eight quota places on offer through the WSL Championship Tour, despite failing to advance past the quarter-finals stage at the France Pro this week.

Fitzgibbons and Gilmore sit third and fourth respectively on the WSL rankings and will don the green and gold when surfing makes its debut appearance at the Games.

Gilmore, 31, is one of the most dominant surfers in history winning the first of her seven world titles during in her 2007 rookie season - the first male or female surfer to accomplish such a feat.

Three-time WSL title runner-up Fitzgibbons said appearing at an Olympics would be a career highlight and an achievement she'd never thought would be possible.

"That's pretty surreal it's amazing. When I started this sport there was no Olympic dream," Fitzgibbons told the WSL website.

"I've just been journeying along by my process and showing up and what do you know - surfing is in the Olympics and I'm going.

"To represent Australia is something we dream of as kids. I've watched the Olympics all the way back since I can remember.

"It's pretty emotional and I just can't wait for it to come around."

Fitzgibbons will need strong finishes at the final two events of the year in Portugal and Hawaii if she is to challenge the likes of Carissa Moore (Hawaii) and Lakey Paterson (USA) for the overall title.

Moore and Paterson won through to the semi-finals along with Johanne Defay.

Fitzgibbons, third coming into the eighth event of the season, looked to be well matched with France's Defay (ninth) in their quarter-final.

But Defay traded off her local knowledge to oust Fitzgibbons with a two-wave score of 15.4 to 9.26.

In clean four to six foot waves Defay took the best options and registered the top single wave score of the competition to that point with a 9.4.

Australia's Julian Wilson, Jack Freestone, Wade Carmichael, Adrian Buchan and Ryan Callinan saw their last-16 heats called off for the day.

Australian Associated Press