With the ICF SUP World Championships a great 2023 SUP season is coming to an end. We are now looking at the final list of the Top 10 athletes in the world. Winter break is upon us and we have plenty time to analyze who is the true SUP World Champions 2023. For now take a look the ICF races in Thailand have shifted the rankings.
Men Longdistance
Nobody was able to catch Donato Freens who was not in Thailand. With 13 races under his and a solid points lead his number one spot was secure. The only one who could catch him was Ludovic Teulade but his 6th place was not enough. Noic Garioud had a big win in Thailand and made it to the podium in the ranking. We may note that it took him only 5 races to get there. (We will analyze this in a future post.) Rai Taguchi was 3rd in Thailand and moved into the 4th spot. Shuri Araki also had a great race in Thailand and his 2nd place secured him the 8th place in the SUP World Ranking. Aaron Sanchez and Michael Booth had acceptable results at the ICF and therefore remain in the top 10. Normen Weber, Bruno Hasulyo and Christian Andersen did not compete at the longdistance in Thailand and lost 2 spots.
| Rank | Name | Country | Races | Points | Change |
| 1 | Donato Freens | NED | 13 | 3872.97 | → |
| 2 | Ludovic Teulade | FRA | 10 | 3354.8 | → |
| 3 | Noic Garioud | FRA | 5 | 2980.56 | NEW |
| 4 | Rai Taguchi | JPN | 7 | 2979.29 | NEW |
| 5 | Normen Weber | GER | 10 | 2886.68 | ↓2 |
| 6 | Bruno Hasulyo | HUN | 8 | 2866 | ↓2 |
| 7 | Christian Andersen | DEN | 9 | 2835.77 | ↓2 |
| 8 | Shuri Araki | JPN | 5 | 2769.2 | NEW |
| 9 | Aaron Sanchez | ESP | 9 | 2677.32 | → |
| 10 | Michael Booth | AUS | 7 | 2532.18 | → |
Women Longdistance
Esperanza Barreras solidified her top spot with a win in Thailand. In fact Espe held the top spot for the entire season since we started keeping track in April. Despite her 6th place in Thailand Anna Tschirky defended her spot against Duna Gordillo who was 3rd in Thailand. Cecilia Pampinella did not paddle the Open Longdistance and looses one spot. The runner up in this division is Kimberly Barnes, her surprising 2nd place moved her to spot number 5. Iona Rivet also moved up 2 spots due to her 7th place. All others did not race in the longdistance in Thailand.
| Rank | Name | Country | Races | Points | Change |
| 1 | Esperanza Barreras | ESP | 11 | 3590.4 | → |
| 2 | Anna Tschirky | SUI | 14 | 2944.32 | → |
| 3 | Duna Gordillo | ESP | 10 | 2581.7 | ↑1 |
| 4 | Cecilia Pampinella | ITA | 10 | 2284.61 | ↓1 |
| 5 | Kimberly Barnes | USA | 6 | 1298.9 | NEW |
| 6 | Tanja Ecker | GER | 7 | 1144.67 | ↓1 |
| 7 | Iona Rivet | FRA | 8 | 1076.05 | ↑2 |
| 8 | Emma Freja Pedersen | DEN | 8 | 1063.89 | ↓2 |
| 9 | Juliette DuHaime | ARG | 6 | 1053.44 | ↓2 |
| 10 | Candice Appleby | USA | 6 | 1009.55 | ↓2 |
Tech. Race Men
Christian Andersen has been holding the top spot since his win in Agios Crete and his 5th place in Thailand gave him enough points to fend off Connor Baxter who win in Thailand in the legendary final. With Shuri Araki in spot number 3 and his 8th place at the ICF the top spots did not change. Itzel Delgado arrived with a 2nd place on spot number 4 and Antonio Morillos bronze medal got him into rank 5. All other moved down except Noic Garioud who come in last in the A-Final.
| Rank | Name | Country | Races | Points | Change |
| 1 | Christan Andersen | DEN | 10 | 3492.56 | → |
| 2 | Connor Baxter | USA | 7 | 3362.86 | → |
| 3 | Shuri Araki | JPN | 5 | 2585.65 | → |
| 4 | Itzel Delgado | PER | 7 | 2172.65 | NEW |
| 5 | Antonio Morillo | ESP | 7 | 2140.27 | NEW |
| 6 | Fernando Perez | ESP | 7 | 1997.72 | ↓1 |
| 7 | Davide Alpino | ITA | 7 | 1894.22 | ↓3 |
| 8 | Noic Garioud | FRA | 4 | 1799.9 | → |
| 9 | Ollie Houghton | NZL | 6 | 1786.65 | ↓3 |
| 10 | Arthur Arutkin | FRA | 7 | 1754.01 | ↓1 |
Tech Race Women
Esperanzas victory in Thailand showed once again that she belongs in the top spot. Neither Melanie Lafenetres 2nd place or Juliette Duhaimes third place would change any of that. Anna Tschriky did well in Thailand with a 4th place but moved one spot down because of Melanie. Fiona Wylde was 7th in the Tech. Race which did not give her enough points to significantly move up. Unfortunately we did not see Marie Carmen River in Thailand, but her previous results kept her in the top 10.
| Rank | Name | Country | Races | Pts | Change |
| 1 | Esperanza Barreras | ESP | 9 | 2672.41 | → |
| 2 | Juliette Duhaime | ARG | 7 | 1910.94 | → |
| 3 | Cecilia Pampinella | ITA | 8 | 1526.13 | → |
| 4 | Melanie Lafenetre | FRA | 5 | 1497.05 | ↑2 |
| 5 | Anna Tschirky | SUI | 8 | 1490.4 | ↓1 |
| 6 | Fiona Wylde | USA | 5 | 1166.05 | ↑1 |
| 7 | Caroline Kuntzel | DEN | 5 | 1107.31 | → |
| 8 | Marie Carmen Rivera | PUR | 7 | 972.46 | → |
| 9 | Alba Frey | ESP | 7 | 951.92 | ↑1 |
| 10 | Claudia Postiglione | ITA | 7 | 812.19 | ↓1 |
Sprint Men
One of the most exciting disciplines but the least races. Christian Andersen held to top spot since his 5th place at the ISA his 8th place in Thailand was enough to keep it that way. One more win for Noic Garioud and that would probably change. Noics victory moved him up 4 spots. Andrey Kraitor did very well with a 3rd place in Thailand and moved up 5 spots back into the top 3 were he was most of the summer. Most interesting to see was that Connor Baxters victory in Thailan and only sprint race all year was enough to get him into the top 10. Davide Alpino defended his 4th rank with a 4th place in Thailand. Blue Ewer was 9th and jumped up from previously 10th rank to 6th.
| Rank | Name | Country | Races | Points | Change |
| 1 | Christan Andersen | DEN | 4 | 1500.71 | → |
| 2 | Noic Garioud | FRA | 2 | 1389.6 | ↑4 |
| 3 | Andrey Kraitor | BUL | 2 | 1196 | ↑5 |
| 4 | Davide Alpino | ITA | 3 | 1162.32 | → |
| 5 | Claudio Nika | ITA | 3 | 1075.37 | ↓3 |
| 6 | Blue Ewer | GBR | 4 | 840 | ↑4 |
| 7 | Aaron Sanchez | ESP | 3 | 833.66 | ↑2 |
| 8 | Ollie Houghton | NZL | 2 | 713.65 | ↓5 |
| 9 | Connor Baxter | USA | 1 | 700 | NEW |
| 10 | Itzel Delgado | PER | 3 | 671.65 | ↓2 |
Sprint Women
Melanie Lafenetres 4th place in Thailand backed up with a 1. ISA and 1. ESF was enough to make her the champ in this division. Sey-Chelles win at the ICF Sarasota and Thailand got her right into the 2nd place behind Melanie. Another great new entry in the top 10 is Juliette Duhaime with her 2nd place in Thailand. Sadly Caroline KĂĽntzel did not perform well at the ICF and lost her top rank. Another name we have not seen in the ranking is Tarryn King, her podium in Thailand backed up with also a 3rd place at the ISA put her in spot number 6.
| Rank | Name | Country | Races | Pts | Change |
| 1 | Melanie Lafenetre | FRA | 3 | 871.75 | ↑1 |
| 2 | Sey-Chelle | USA | 2 | 714.25 | NEW |
| 3 | Juliette Duhaime | ARG | 2 | 630.4 | NEW |
| 4 | Caroline Kuntzel | DEN | 3 | 618.81 | ↓3 |
| 5 | Cecilia Pampinella | ITA | 3 | 606.11 | ↓2 |
| 6 | Tarryn King | RSA | 2 | 555.84 | NEW |
| 7 | Linda Syrovatkova | CZE | 5 | 523.42 | ↓3 |
| 8 | Iva Dundova | CZE | 3 | 452.25 | ↓3 |
| 9 | Marta Apanasewicz | POL | 2 | 404.95 | ↓3 |
| 10 | Anna Tschirky | SUI | 2 | 359.9 | ↓3 |
These are the top 10 SUP Athletes of the world as of the end of season 2023. In a future post we will analyze and determine the real world champions as this system has one flaw: You can race many smaller events and get enough points to for example sit out a bigger event. In a future article we will look at more details.