Canada's best hope for Olympic surfing medal has a problem — she's not a Canadian yet
American teen Erin Brooks awaits permission to become dual citizen in order to compete
Many in Canadian Olympic circles are predicting big things in Paris for teenage surfing sensation Erin Brooks. The only problem is that Brooks is not a Canadian citizen and is currently not eligible to represent Canada on the Olympic stage.
Brooks has garnered significant media attention in recent years, rising quickly up the ranks and making a name for herself in the surfing world and beyond. For the past number of years, she has competed under the Canadian flag at international events, including earlier this month when she won a silver medal at the world championship in El Salvador. All of the coverage of her success, including articles written on the Canadian Olympic Committee's (COC) website, report that the 15-year-old is a dual citizen of Canada.
In reality, Brooks has been granted exemptions to compete for Canada at these competitions with assurances that her pending application for citizenship is likely to succeed. No such exemption is possible for the Olympics or the Pan Am Games.
"I am just focused on competing," the 15-year-old Brooks told CBC Sports. "The citizenship thing is something my dad and other people can take care of. I am just focusing on surfing."
For the past three years, Brooks' family, with the help of the COC and Surf Canada, has been trying to convince the Canadian government to grant the surfing phenom Canadian citizenship.
"We're certainly getting closer and closer to the wire. I just hope it happens. It would be wonderful to see her be part of Team Canada," David Shoemaker, CEO of the COC, told CBC. "We do support her application. We think she'd be a wonderful addition to Team Canada because not only of her potential to compete at the highest level and compete for a medal, but her ability to inspire young Canadian women."
"We continue to work towards formalizing Erin's Canadian citizenship and it is her preference to surf for Canada, although others have tried to recruit her," Surf Canada's president Lionel Conacher said. "She feels her roots and her future are in Canada and she hopes to make Canada proud at the 2024 Games."
Brooks was born and raised in Texas before moving to Hawaii to pursue her surfing career, but does have Canadian connections. She still has extended family living in Canada, mostly in the Montreal area.
Her grandparents were born in Quebec before moving to California. Her mother is German but her father, Jeff, was born in the U.S. and was eligible to acquire dual citizenship under Canadian law at the time.
Those rules have since changed and Erin has had to take a different route toward citizenship. She has made an application directly to Canadian Immigration Minister Sean Fraser, who could offer her an exemption and grant citizenship on the basis that Brooks has exemplary or exceptional value to Canada.
Canadian sports officials say Brooks is a once in a generation athlete.
"She is an absolute podium threat at Tahiti," said Dom Domic, executive director of Surf Canada. "Without question she is amongst the top three on the planet when you're talking about the kind of conditions we will see in Tahiti [where the Paris Olympics competition will be held.]"
Jeff Brooks says his daughter is Canada's best medal hope in surfing.
"There are other Canadian surfers and some really good ones, but she is Canada's best shot at medalling in this next Olympics and she's proven to be one of the best surfers in the world, and there is definitely a benefit to what she can bring," he said.
Brooks and her family say they are committed to competing for Canada. They say this isn't about finding an easier path to the Olympics in a country that is not a traditional surfing power.
"I want to inspire young Canadian girls to surf. There are amazing waves here in Canada," Erin said. "I want people to get outside, have fun and just chase their dreams."
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Jeff Brooks says other countries have pursued his daughter to compete for them at the Olympics, including the United States, Italy and Germany.
"All of those countries would bring her more exposure and more money," he said. "She's surfing for Canada because she wants to for her family, not because there is a massive benefit for her being associated with Canada.
"The allure is she has been able to do a lot of never-done-before things for someone that's competing internationally for Canada."
The clock is ticking. Brooks needs her citizenship in place for the Pan Am Games, set to take place in Chile in late October, and which is one of the final direct qualifiers for the Olympics.
"There's a sequence that needs to happen," Shoemaker said. "We don't have a year, let's put it that way, for this to get solved."
The decision is at the sole discretion of the minister, who has had her application for nearly three years. In a statement to CBC, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it could not comment on the application because of privacy legislation.
Warren Creates, an Ottawa immigration lawyer who is not directly involved in this case, says exemptions on these grounds are "extremely rare" and an "uphill battle" in his experience.
"It's a very high bar. Yes, the minister has this discretion, but they have to use it wisely and in a balanced way not randomly," Creates said. "Just because there's a petition signed by 10,000 people saying this person should be a citizen so they can compete in an international competition wearing the Canadian colours, there is a very responsible balancing done by senior departmental officials before they recommend to a minister to approve any such case."
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