Italo FERREIRA

Off the back of three tour wins in 2018, the surfer from Baía Formosa went into the 2019 season brimming in confidence. He kickstarted the tour with a win on the Gold Coash, then went on to bank a second-place finish in South Africa and France, before coming first again in Portugal. The final event of the year in Hawaii, the infamous Billabong Pipeline Masters, was hotly contested between Ferreira and fellow countryman Gabriel Medina. Fortunately for Ferreira he emerged the victor of the two, and with it came not just the tour win but also the world championship.

The United States and Australia have long been the two global powerhouses of surfing, but with the likes of Ferreira and Medina in perfect form, Brazil has disrupted surfing's status quo - with Japan following suit thanks to Kanoa Igarashi's silver at the Olympics.

Speaking to Olympics.com before surfing’s debut Ferreira said: “I think (the Olympics) are another world, ‘out of every rule’. Everything about this competition is special, it’s a huge event, the whole world will be connected to it. I’m going to have a big chance to show my talent to the people following the event.”

He certainly did that.

The final against Igarashi saw Ferreira break a board. But he calmly picked up another (not from a cousin this time) and overcame the challenging choppy conditions to score 15.4, and carry the first men's surfing Olympic gold back to Brazil - doing a backflip off the top of the podium just for good measure.