Surfing was added as an Olympic sport for the Tokyo Games and the second inaugural event is being held in Tahiti, French Polynesia.
Only a select few surfers can continue on to the 2024 Olympics quarterfinals and Monday’s event aimed to narrow the field from 16 to eight.
In the fifth heat of the third round, Brazilian Gabriel Medina, 30, wowed crowds with an incredible performance on Tahiti’s Teahupo’o wave.
Competing against Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi, 26, the two men battled it out on the waves — the second time they’ve faced off in Olympic competition. The first time, at the inaugural surfing Olympics event in Tokyo in 2021, Igarashi walked away with the win over Medina in the semifinals and then took home the silver overall.
In the opening run of their 2024 face off, both Medina and Igarashi each caught smaller waves. Then, in what was the ride of the day, Medina caught his second run on a giant set wave.
When he popped out of the barrel, Medina held up both his hands to the judges, signaling he thought he should get a perfect 10 for the ride. Two of the five judges did give him a perfect score, and his final result for the ride was a 9.9 — one of the best of the day.
He then rode over the back of the wave, and pointed his finger at the sky, seemingly to say he (or Brazil) is No. 1.
The moment was captured in an iconic picture, taken by Jerome Brouillet. The photo shows Medina seemingly floating over the horizon, his board beside him, just seconds before he splashed back into the water.
Medina has been favored to take home the gold at the 2024 Olympics, NBC Sports commentators said during the broadcast because he can adapt and change his strategy “better than anyone.”
By the halfway point of the heat, Medina had really walked away with the win, and several runs later, Medina won the heat with a total score of 17.40, compared to Igarashi’s 7.04.
The weather and waves for the start of the round were ideal, according to commentators.
“These conditions, we’ve only seen conditions this good for a contest on this wave a few times in competitive surfing history,” an unidentified NBC commentator said. “Conditions right now are really turning on and these surfers are so excited about it.”
However, after more than four hours of ideal weather, the wind seemed to shift and pick up — creating more dangerous conditions.
By the seventh heat in the third round, the waves had gotten even larger. “Saturday Night Live” star Colin Jost, who has been serving as NBC’s surfing correspondent, captured the waves in an Instagram story in the moments ahead of American surfer John John Florence and Australia’s Jack Robinson’s heat.
“Waves have almost doubled in size since this morning…and may double AGAIN,” the caption on Jost’s story read.
Florence was subsequently knocked out of the competition with a score of 9.07, falling to Australia’s Jack Robinson, who scored 13.94.
“That’s the challenge for these surfers — it definitely presents the opportunity for the wave of your life, the moment you’ll never forget, and the most dangerous thing you’ve ever attempted,” one of the NBC commentators said during the broadcast.
The conditions got so dangerous that the Women’s Surfing Round 3, slated to happen after the men’s competition, was called off for the day, according to the official Olympics website.
“After four plus hours of ideal conditions at Teahupo’o, the wind has started to blow onshore and the rain is coming down sideways, turning the already dangerous surf into something markedly worse and wholly uncontestable,” the site reads. “Officials will make a call tomorrow morning at 6:15 Tahiti time (12:15 p.m. ET) as to when the (competition) will resume.”
The men’s competition was allowed to finish on Monday, however. In addition to Medina and Robinson, six other athletes advanced to the next round: Peru’s Alonso Correa, Japan’s Inaba Reo, France’s Kauli Vaast and Joan Duru, Brazil’s Joao Chianca and Australia’s Ethan Ewing.
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