Alan Cleland

Alan George Cleland Quiñonez (born 2 June 2002) is a Mexican surfer. He won a gold medal at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games and is qualified to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Early life
Cleland was born in the beachside town of Boca de Pascuales, Colima, Mexico, to a Mexican mother and an American father. His father, Alan Cleland Sr., was a pro surfer from the San Diego area who had relocated to Boca de Pascuales and married a local woman. Alan Jr. did not begin learning English until he was six years old, and he attended a public primary school before switching to a home school curriculum.

Cleland began surfing at a young age in his hometown, which is known for its rough waters, though he soon moved to California to further develop his talent. In 2014, he began representing his birth country in competitions.

Career
Cleland began competing on the World Surf League (WSL) Men's Junior Tour in 2015. The following year, at the age of 14, he competed in the under-18 category at the ISA World Junior Championship. Cleland made his WSL Qualifying Series debut in 2017, placing 25th at the Powerade Surf Open in Acapulco. He also took first place in the under-16 category. At the 2017 ISA World Junior Championship, Cleland competed in both the under-16 and under-18 categories after capturing national titles at both age groups. He finished in third place in the juvenile category at the 2018 US Open of Surfing. In 2019, Cleland won a silver medal in the under-18 category at the ISA World Junior Championship, which was held in Huntington Beach, California. In 2022, Cleland earned his first WSL Junior Tour victory at the Live Like Zander Junior Pro in Barbados.

Cleland won the gold medal at the 2023 ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador, becoming the second Mexican man to win gold at the event (after Jhony Corzo in 2017). He recorded three of the top ten highest-scoring waves of the competition, including a 9.73 in the final. Two months later in August 2023, Cleland officially qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Since Jordy Smith of South Africa earned qualification both through the World Surfing Games (WSG) and the WSL Championship Tour, his WSG slot as the highest-finishing African surfer would normally have been given to the next ranked African, which was Teva Bouchgua of Morocco. However, the qualification system required a top 30 placement and Bouchgua finished 31st, meaning the WSG slot was re-allocated to the highest-finishing eligible surfer, regardless of continent, which was Cleland. He became the first Mexican surfer to ever qualify for the Olympics.