Molly Picklum Is Your 2025 World Champion!

The dream has been realised.

Years of hard work, determination, and grit have paid off — 2025 belongs to Molly Picklum.

Molly has capped off an absolutely dominant season on the Championship Tour, winning the WSL Finals Fiji to claim her maiden World Championship. The 22-year-old held the Yellow Leader Jersey for the majority of the year, finishing the regular season with two event wins (Rio & Teahupo’o), two runner-up finishes, and three semifinals.

Molly overcame 2023 World Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist Caroline Marks (USA) with a dominant backside performance at Cloudbreak over three epic 35-minute matchups. 

“I’m so speechless right now. I really feel like this is the cherry on top of what I’ve done to my career and my personal life, really turning things around. It’s such a trip and something you can never take away from me to be a World Champion. To get this after such an amazing season is so special and something I’ll remember for life. To be the undisputed, undeniable Champ is something I’ve dreamt of, and to win that way feels my heart. I can not believe it, I’m just so grateful to get the opportunity to do what I love.”

After a slow start and losing the first match, Molly came back with a vengeance, posting a 15.83 two-wave total, which included an 8.83 for a long tube ride, to take it to a third and title-deciding match. Molly continued the charge, posting another 8.83, the highest single-wave score of the entire event. Molly posted the highest two-wave total of the event, 16.93, to take an unassailable lead over Marks and become the first Australian World Champion since Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) in 2022.  

“There was so much doubt, but I feel like that’s what raises a champion. You have to step up and rise above that. I just kept true to trusting in the unknown, and I’m so, so grateful that it panned out. After the first heat, I just swallowed it and took what I could, honored my beliefs, and went after it.

It’s such a trip to be a Central Coast kid, growing up looking up to Steph, Layne, Sally, and Tyler and all of those girls, and to now be on a list with them, I just feel so honored and grateful. There have been so many amazing females in surfing who have come before us and paved the way for me and others to get out there and do what we love, so it’s a trip to be amongst that now. It really is true that it takes a village to raise a child, and to have the whole Central Coast behind me as well as my team around me, all year, and my family and friends, they know me and how hard I work, so to do it in front of them is so, so special.”   

There’s no one more deserving to be the 2025 World Surfing Champion. Congratulations Molly, we couldn’t be prouder!

Relive all the action HERE