For Olympics.com it was Morgan Maassen, for AFP Jerome Brouillet got the shot of Brazilian Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina being air-borne at Teahupo’o during his third heat expedition at the Paris 2024.
“That’s the picture of the Olympics,” responded a cameraman when an Olympic Channel reporter showed the picture of Medina.
Interestingly, in the build-up to the moment, when the now-iconic picture was captured, the 30-year-old Brazilian signaled a perfect 10 to the judges and then gestured a No.1 signal before taking a plunge into the southern Pacific Ocean in Tahiti. The breath-taking moment was documented in a video as posted below:
¡Casi 10!
Gabriel Medina 🇧🇷, logró el mejor registro histórico del surf olímpico, al obtener 9.90 luego de montar una ola gigante de Theaupo’o, Tahití, cuyo momento mágico quedó plasmado en esta fotografía.#Surf 🏄🏼♂️#Paris2024#OlimpiadasxDCA
📸Jerome Brouillet/ AFP via Getty… pic.twitter.com/0Bl3yOzd27— Diario de Centro América (@DiariodeCA) July 30, 2024
The three-time World Champion earned a 9.90 on his second wave but he felt really happy on getting to a perfect 10. “Felt amazing to get some good waves and I almost got a 10 so I was really happy with that. It’s really a dream come true to compete in waves like this for the Olympics. It was really in my dream and I’m realising this today and I’m very happy to be a part of this,” Medina told olympics.com.
He was up against Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi in the fifth heat of the day where the conditions were even more difficult for the surfers. But he did well to enter the quarter-final where he will be up against his Brazilian compatriot Joao Chianca.
But before that he will sleep and relax before adding on to his own legacy.
