{"id":385496,"date":"2024-04-16T09:18:14","date_gmt":"2024-04-16T09:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=385496"},"modified":"2024-04-16T22:04:47","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T22:04:47","slug":"slater-fights-tears-as-retirement-realisation-hits-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=385496","title":{"rendered":"Slater fights tears as retirement realisation hits home"},"content":{"rendered":"

Surfing icon Kelly Slater<\/a> became emotional after he was eliminated from the Margaret River Pro, with suggestions his career is on a knife's edge.<\/p>\n

Slater, who is an 11-time world champion, was chaired off after he was knocked out of the competition in the round of 32 at the hands of Griffin Colapinto.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old choked back tears\ufeff as he recounted his loss, as well as reflecting on his lack of motivation in recent times.<\/p>\n

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"It's almost hitting me, it's right there, it's bubbling," Slater said post competition.<\/p>\n

Slater expressed his disappointment on his final wave, if it is to be his last, admitting it is one that has challenged him his entire career.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Slater<\/p>\n

He scored a 6.17\ufeff, while Colapinto dominated with a 11.87 to take the win.<\/p>\n

"I've had a fight with this wave my whole career, so it's not necessarily the wave I want to end on," he said.<\/p>\n

However, it may not be over just yet, with the veteran confirming he has applied for a wildcard entry to August's Fiji Pro.<\/p>\n

"I have put in for a wildcard for Fiji and we'll see how that goes," Slater said.<\/p>\n

\"Kelly<\/p>\n

Despite the slim hope that he could still be surfing in August, Slater is now evidently preparing for life beyond surfing.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It is what it is," he began.<\/p>\n

"Everything comes to an end and if you don't adapt, you don't survive.<\/p>\n

"My motivation hasn't quite been there to put in that 100 per cent that everyone's doing now."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/Sally_Fitz\/status\/1780143175874863328<\/a><\/p>\n

Slater is an expectant father and admitted he has already broken down physically and emotionally.<\/p>\n

In 2022 during the Bells Beach Classic, Slater injured his hip and was forced into surgery.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"It's been an incredible lifetime of memories," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Slater<\/p>\n

"It's so much emotion for so long. It's not all roses but it's been the best times of my life.<\/p>\n

"I couldn't quite pull a miracle off this week. I've pulled off a few over the years. I still had that hope out there.<\/p>\n

"I broke down at home, this feel likes the end but the start of something else."\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Surfing icon Kelly Slater became emotional after he was eliminated from the Margaret River Pro, with suggestions his career is on a knife's edge. Slater, […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":385501,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385496"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=385496"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385496\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385510,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385496\/revisions\/385510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/385501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=385496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=385496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=385496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}