The image, captured by Jerome Brouillet for Agence France-Presse, showed Medina and his tethered board appearing to perform parallel levitations above the South Pacific Ocean. Rather than a scene of serenity, however, the photo told a striking tale of the Olympics’ competitive spirit, given that Medina was using his right arm and raised index finger to make a “No. 1” gesture while in midair.
The 30-year-old Medina, a three-time World Surf League champion, had good reason to proclaim his primacy. He had expertly dropped into a barrel and emerged on the other side not just with aplomb, but with all his fingers raised in a signal to judges to award him a perfect 10. Some did just that, and Medina came away with a score of 9.90 that marked a new Olympic record for a single wave run.
Medina then rode up the wave and kicked out the back of it in triumphant style. Having photographed the Brazilian star in similar poses a number of times in the past, Brouillet was ready.
“I was not surprised about that, I was prepared,” the 39-year-old photographer, who has been shooting surfing and other sports for most of a decade, said in a phone interview Monday evening. “I and the other photographers on the boat were supposing he was going to make a kick-out, and that’s what he did.
“So I pushed the button,” he added with a laugh.
Taken just before Medina dropped back into the water, Brouillet’s photo also made quite the splash. Distributed by his Paris-based news agency and Getty Images, it quickly caught steam online as posts praising it turned into countless reshares. Brouillet, a native of France, used a solid command of English to discuss his eye-catching work and how he learned it went viral during a break in the Olympic action.
“I took [out] my phone and I had so many notifications, about Instagram and stuff like that. I just clicked and I saw an unusual amount of followers following me,” he said with a chuckle. “So I guessed something was happening, and then saw first a post from Brazil with the shot, and then it goes — I don’t know how to say in English — in the vortex, and then … it goes viral. Amazing, surprising.”
Asked about being taken aback by the reaction to his photo, Brouillet replied, “I never thought it was possible that this shot would be so much appreciated, but I can understand why. … The alignment of Gabriel and the board — some have tried to say it’s Photoshopped, but no, Gabriel and the board are just aligned like that, with the leash connecting the two [elements].”
As for Medina, the record-setting ride propelled him to an overall score for his outing of 17.40, which was more than enough to top Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi, a silver medalist at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The third-round result moved Medina into a quarterfinal showdown Tuesday against countryman Joao Chianca.
Medina’s matchup on Monday came in what turned out to be something of a sweet spot on a day at Teahupo’o when conditions provided some “serious waves,” as another competitor put it, before the weather deteriorated to the point where the third round of the women’s competition had to be postponed.
“I never imagined we could get waves like this in the Olympics,” Medina said (via Reuters). “I’m comfortable when the waves are good and as long as it’s like this, it’s good for everyone. … Today was a good day for sure.”
It was also a good day for Brouillet, who was positioned with six other photographers in a boat near the action. He said he does not know Medina personally, and even if he did, they would have been unlikely to have gotten into a conversation about the photo they combined to create.
“Like me, he did not know that this shot would turn around the world like this,” Brouillet said. “For him, it was just another climb up the wave like he does every time, and I was just shooting him like I do every time.”
“So,” he continued, “I was like, ‘Okay, good shot. I will send it to the editor.’ And then, one hour after, it’s, ‘Wow.’ The storm.”
