American Caroline Marks wins surfing gold at Paris Olympics: "Beyond all my wildest dreams"

Caroline Marks from the United States won the women's surfing gold medal while French Polynesian Kauli Vaast won the gold medal in men's surfing on Monday at the Paris Olympics in Tahiti.

Cheers and tears erupted from boats floating near the wave and crowds of spectators along the shore as the men's final match ended in the afternoon. Vaast pumped his arms into the air in victory after beating Jack Robinson from Australia, who received the silver medal.

"I don't really realize it, but I just made history," said Vaast. "I can't be prouder to represent Tahiti and France at home."

The women's gold medal match ended about 30 minutes later, with Marks beating Tatiana Weston-Webb from Brazil, who was awarded the silver medal.

"Your whole life goes into a moment like this," Marks said with a gold medal hanging around her neck. "It's beyond all my wildest dreams."

For the bronze medals, Gabriel Medina from Brazil and Johanne Defay from France won after beating Alonso Correa from Peru and Brisa Hennessy from Costa Rica, respectively.

"Chopes gave me so many good waves, so many good results. So I can't complain," said Medina, using a common nickname for Teahupo'o.

Medalists - some in bare feet - stepped on to the Olympic podium near the ocean as crowds gathered to cheer and take photographs. Roosters ran along the grass while young local surfers called the names of the athletes as they walked by.

All winners of the Paris Olympics surfing competition are first-time Olympic medalists, after defending Olympic women's champion Carissa Moore of the United States - who won at the Tokyo Games, where Olympic surfing debuted - was beaten in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

"Obviously I'm really sad to not be a part of finals day, to get to represent my home and my family one more time, but I'm really grateful," Moore said after her loss. "I just hope that at the end of the day I can encourage whoever is watching, win or lose, don't be afraid to go into it fearlessly and don't be afraid to fail."

The final day of the Paris Olympics surfing competition began Monday morning after two days of delays due to unfavorable conditions. In the morning, conditions were smaller than the heavy, barrel-shaped waves Teahupo'o is famed for and that were seen during part of the men's competition the week before.

But by the afternoon waves grew larger and more frequent, giving athletes a chance to impress judges with the time they spent inside the barrels. At one point during the competition a whale jumped out of the water and gave spectators and photographers an amazing Olympics moment.

Six of the eight surfers who made it to the semifinals represented different nations. French Polynesian, Peruvian, Australian and other national flags flew from boats near the waves.

While not every surfer who competed was able to bring home a medal, many agreed that the second-ever Olympics surfing competition - filled with viral photographs, record-breaking scores and hours of stunning video footage broadcast to viewers around the world - helped promote the sport.

"Everyone's watching and paying attention," said Medina, who said he gained millions of social media followers after a photo of him floating in the sky next to his surfboard while bailing out of a wave went viral during the competition. "I think surfing wins."

While Tahiti has been a global destination for surfers since the 1960, surfing in Polynesia stretches back hundreds – some say thousands – of years and remains "an important part of Polynesian culture, treated as an art more than a sport," according to NOAA.

Teahupo'o welcomes surfers from around the world each year to compete for the World Surf League Tahiti Pro title. 

Mary Cunningham contributed to this report.

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• Olympics