Tyler Wright reveals off-season operation that’s changed her life

Tyler Wright won two world championships competing with a breathing issue she’s finally resolved that has her primed for Olympic gold in Paris.

Tyler Wright is pushing boundaries with her condition. Picture: Matt Dunbar/World Surf League via Getty Images

Australian surf star Tyler Wright will head to the Paris Olympics feeling “the sanest I’ve ever felt” after having seven screws inserted in her head to help breathing issues that left her and doctors confounded.

The two-time world champion made the revelations about her off-season operation after surging into the quarter-finals at Portugal’s Ripcurl Pro, where world No.1 Molly Picklum was a shock casualty.

Medical battles are not new to Wright, who suffered a debilitating bout of post-viral syndrome that left her bed-bound in 2018, but she returned to the top of her game and finished third in the 2023 world championship.

But the 29-year-old revealed she was primed for better this year, outlining the extensive testing and scans it took to diagnose an airways issue that she called life-changing” having competed with it for most of her life.

“I’ve had a fair few doctors and specialists tell me they don’t know how I do what I do,” Wright said.

“I shouldn’t be able to do what I do, according to my brain scans and my anatomy. It’s really unusual that I am a professional surfer (with the condition).

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“Through one of the specialists we ended up finding that most of the time I’m under-oxygenated and I’m semi-suffocating all the time through my nose, and my airways are really small.

“So through the off-season I got a maxillary palatal expander (a device that widens the mouth) in. Essentially, I’ve got seven screws in my head, between nine and 17mm (in length) and in the off-season I expanded it. Essentially, it popped the bone and I got 7mm (added airway space) through that.”

Wright won back-to-back 2016 and 2017 world titles before a 14-month lay-off while she battled chronic fatigue and emotional breakdowns.

Her return to the top has included selection alongside Picklum for the Paris Olympics, which will take place at Teahupo’o in Tahiti in July.

Wright said she was more ready than ever to tackle that next hurdle after her off-season work.

“Honestly, it’s been life-changing, it’s the sanest I’ve ever felt,” Wright told the WSL broadcast.

“It’s been a little tricky navigating during the season with the pressure points it’s put on other parts of my brain. Every time I hit my hit, I kind of got a concussion before the season started and every time I tap it, it wigs me out a bit.

“I’ve got to train a new system, 13 years in it’s perplexing and does my head in a little bit. But I’m working it through, and I’ve got great support and great doctors.

“It’s been really successful and it’s changing my life, but it’s also a process and that’s only step 1½ of a multi-step process.”