The man who walks on water: Gabriel Medina and his quest for Olympic gold

Interview: The 30-year-old Brazilian explores surfing, life’s balance and the pressures of being an Olympian

Brazil’s Gabriel Medina is aiming to win surfing gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics. (AFP via Getty Images)

Gabriel Medina’s friends in Maresias used to joke that he walked on water, now there is miracle photo evidence to prove it.

Medina was on a surfboard as soon as he could walk, won his first national title aged 11 and turned pro before he’d left school.

He arrived at Tahiti’s fabled Teahupo’o reef as the gold medal favourite and whatever happens in the next few days, has already provided the Olympics viral moment.

His airborne celebration after cresting a near-perfect wave was brilliantly captured by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouille, bobbing around on a nearby boat.

Medina emerged from a thundering barrel with his arms outstretched, floating above the surf alongside his board in near perfect symmetry.

Brouille’s shot joins Tony Duffy’s defining image of Bob Beamon’s historic long jump leap at Mexico 1968 as one of the all-time great photos from the Games.

But he is more than just a muse for Brouille’s masterpiece, the photo was captured as he landed a near perfect ten score in beating Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi, who denied him a medal three years ago in Tokyo.

The famous shot of Gabriel Medina competing at Paris 2024 Olympics in Teahupo’o. (AFP via Getty Images)

“I felt like it was a ten. I’ve done a few tens before and I was like, ‘For sure that’s a ten’. The wave was so perfect,” he said.

“It’s really a dream come true to compete in waves like this for the Olympics. Being here in Tahiti feels amazing, it’s my favourite wave in a place I love.

“I always just feel very connected to nature here and that’s when I perform best. I feel close to God on this wave.”

There are two Gabriel Medina’s - one is the classic party loving Zen surf dude, the other an emotional hothead, who unleashed a torrent of abuse on judges when defeated in the fabled Rip Curl Pro Bells Beach in Australia earlier this year.

For someone who claims he doesn’t think too much about results, he cares an awful lot about winning. Rivals talk a lot about his hunger, which coupled with his innate natural talent has made him a three-time world champion.

Friends talk more about Gabby’s love of a party and his ability to reset and refocus after defeats, life rolls relentlessly on, there’s always another wave to catch just over the horizon.

‘Life is a party’ says Medina whose journey to the Olympics has been shaped by his love of surfing. (AP)

“I don’t understand questions about the balance between partying and competition, life is fun, life should be a party,” he said, “I didn’t use to deal with pressure so well, about talking about the possibilities ahead of me.

“The last ten years have taught me how to handle things better, I just focus on being in the water, that is the place I love. If I focus on myself and not the other surfers then everything is good.”

In Tokyo, Medina’s Brazilian rival Italo Ferreira - who didn’t make their team for these Games - became the first surfing gold medalist at the Olympics, defying the odds to beat Igarashi.

From the toddler who learned to surf on the polystyrene boxes from which his father sold fish in the sleepy village of Baia Formosa, to the biggest stage, Ferreira’s journey captured the imagination, a story that Medina can empathise with.

“I didn’t have much growing up but my family and my surfing,” he said, “When I was little, I was probably about six or seven, I used to park cars to help my mum with extra money for food and stuff like that.

“Where I’m from can be a tough place, it makes me appreciate life more, there are friends of mine from school whose life has not gone well, in jail and things like that.

“Surfing made my life different, football was my first love but my stepdad was a surfer and he gave he my first board which I shared with my best friend. I think that’s when everything changed.”

Medina’s childhood has given him an appreciative perspective on the sport he loves. (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A four-hour drive south of Sao Paulo, off the highway and through a long, winding road surrounded by lush tropical jungle, you will find the town of Maresias.

One main road runs through a distinctly unremarkable town with one famous son, who founded the Instituto Gabriel Medina to give children from similar backgrounds the chance to develop both surfing and life skills.

They are watching every moment of his Olympic medal bid in Tahiti surrounded by photos of their idol. There’s a space on the wall for a picture of him with Olympic gold, perhaps alongside Brouille’s shot of a lifetime.

Watch every moment of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 live only on discovery+, the streaming home of the Olympics.