The Brazilian Gabriel Medina, three-time world champion, shoots out of a five-meter wave, appears on the other side completely vertical, as if levitating above the water, makes the victory symbol. He has won: the gold in shortboard is his. He asks for a 10 because his performance has been sublime and he receives a 9.9, the highest score in the history of the Olympic Games, but he takes home another prize.
From a nearby boat, Jerome Brouillet, photographer for the AFP agency, captures the moment. "Click, click, click, click". Done. The best photo of these Paris Games and probably the best sports photo of the year.
"The conditions were perfect, the waves were higher than anyone expected. I was on the boat with six other photographers and couldn't see Medina, who was inside the wave. Suddenly he appeared, I took four shots and one of them was this," explains Brouillet, who laughs at those who assume it was Photoshop or Artificial Intelligence and diminishes the merit of his shot: "It wasn't a difficult photograph. You just had to calculate the moment and the place where Medina would come out of the wave. It has had an impact, but I'm sure my fellow photographers, with whom I was on the boat, won't remember it next week."
"I was surprised by the impact, on social media I had many interactions," adds Brouillet, whose snapshot in Teahupo'o, in Tahiti - the Olympic venue for these Games - appeared almost immediately in hundreds of media outlets around the world, including the live broadcast on ESPN, which had a significant impact in the United States.
Medina's calm gesture, aware of his victory, is powerful, but the value of the photograph lies in its deceptive appearance: the surfer appears to be standing on solid ground, the board is also straight, and even the leash appears completely horizontal. Everything fits for the phenomenon. Also, if known, the story of Medina.
Because even before the gold, before starring in the best photo of the Games, he had to go through his own challenges. Born in Maresías, a small coastal town near Sao Paulo, Medina started surfing after his parents' divorce and after his stepfather, Charlao, taught the sport to him and his siblings - the youngest, Sophia, is also a professional.
Trained by Charlao, he began to succeed very early - at 14 he already had sponsors - and won three World Championships (2014, 2018, and 2021), but after the Tokyo 2020 Games, he realized he needed a change. Working with another coach, evolving in his surfing, growing as an athlete. And that intention, initially logical, ended up leading to a personal crisis. When he informed Charlao of his plans, there was an argument, and for months he lost contact with him and his own mother. At the same time, Medina separated from his wife, the model Yasmin Brunet, and the series of breakups kept him away from the waves. Between 2021 and 2022, he went over a year without competing.
"Before stopping, I would go to competitions and cry on the way to the water. I was calm, didn't talk to anyone, tried to focus on my work, but it wasn't easy. In the end, I took some time off. It's no secret, I went through depression and started treatment with a professional. I was scared because everything stopped making sense to me," commented Medina, who, after therapy, returned to competition and prepared to catch the wave that would take him to Olympic gold in the Paris Games and to star in the sports photo of the year.