Gabriel Medina exclusive after opening door to his Paris 2024 participation – ‘I have no secrets about this, being an Olympic medallist is my goal’
Olympics.com spoke to the three-time world champion after he won the men’s title at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games and helped Brazil secure a third, extra men’s quota for Paris 2024. This last-chance quota could put Medina back on track to win the Olympic gold he narrowly missed three years ago.
There is a roar of cheers on Arecibo beach as Gabriel Medina walks towards his stage - the vast expanse of the Caribbean Sea with a batch of choppy waves to set the scene.
Cameras follow his every step, fellow athletes turn their heads and spectators lean over the barriers to get a better look at the three-time world surfing champion.
Medina seems oblivious to the commotion he has sparked.
Standing on a rock by the water’s surface with a surfboard under his arm, Medina pauses for a moment of calm and prayer. The leader of the Brazilian team does not need to be reminded that his Olympic fate rests on what happens out on these waters in the next 30 minutes.
He raises his gaze to the sea, and then calmly paddles out.
"That's why we train, to arrive at those decisive moments and be 100 per cent and calm,” Medina told Olympics.com after. “I felt calm, I knew I needed to do my job.”
That “job” Medina set out to do looked like a scene taken straight out of an action movie.
Soon after the buzzer sounded on the men’s final at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games in Puerto Rico, the Brazilian launched into a series of aerials that seemed impossible for a human to land, the crowds erupting in cheers on the beach and a helicopter flying over the wave to get a bird’s view of one of the world’s greatest surfers.
Emerging from the foam at the end of this blistering spectacle, Medina had not only won the men’s champion title, but also secured Brazil an extra, third men’s quota at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Olympics.com spoke to the surfing star to discover the next thing he is fighting for.
Gabriel Medina: From childhood fascination with Olympics to Olympic heartbreak
Two young boys were throwing pebbles into the water at Arecibo beach just a few hundred metres away from the competition site of the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games on finals day, 3 March.
They stopped when they saw Medina paddle out into the water.
There was a time not long ago when the sight of an Olympic athlete would also make the 30-year-old Brazilian pause and look on with admiration.
“When I was little, coming home from school, I remember stopping to watch [the Olympic Games] on TV,” Medina recalled. “It was a family program, watching swimming, rooting for Brazil. I didn't really know who was competing, but I remember rooting for my country. That's my first memory of the Olympics. At home, with my family and cheering.
"I like football, tennis, volleyball. I like basketball. I like sport in general. There are beautiful stories of overcoming. I really admire that."
Medina’s own Olympic journey is full of overcoming.
He qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Games with ease through the 2019 World Surf League Championship Tour ranking. It was the season after Medina won his second world title and he was in stellar form, finishing second in the rankings that year.
His time at Tokyo 2020, however, was full of heartbreak as Medina fell to Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi in the semi-final and then lost out on the bronze medal to Australia’s Owen Wright.
When Medina won his career’s third world title a month and a half after the Olympics, it was a painful reminder for all his fans that the Olympic title could have easily been his.
With the added mental strain of the Olympic setback, Medina opted to take a break over the following months. He was absent from competition from September 2021 to May 2022 and spoke openly about dealing with depression.
The time off paid off when Medina returned to competition with back-to-back third places. He also claimed a win at the Margaret River Pro the following season.
The surfing world took notice – Gabriel Medina was back.
"I feel 100 per cent today,” Medina said about his current mental state. “All these years it's been a lot of fun. I've been learning a lot about myself and getting to know myself more and more, so I'm happy to understand myself better today and take things in the best way possible, so that I feel good.”
Tahiti rollercoaster: How Gabriel Medina’s "favourite wave" let him down
Another Olympic journey began for Medina after his competitive comeback, but just as with Tokyo 2020, the Olympic dream seemed to elude the man who has dominated the Championship Tour.
Trailing fellow Brazilians Filipe Toledo and Joao Chianca in the WSL rankings in August 2023, Medina needed a top performance at Tahiti Pro to secure a quota for the next Olympic Games*.
He missed by the narrowest of margins when he finished second to Australia’s Jack Robinson in the final on the same wave where he had hoped to become a two-time Olympian.
A mere 0.66 points is all that stood between the three-time world champion and Olympic qualification.
"I was very sad after the final in Tahiti at the CT last year,” Medina said. “I would never have written the story the way it was. Getting this place was very painful."
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Dream team propels Gabriel Medina through the final Olympic qualifier
There was only once chance left for Medina to secure a quota for Paris 2024 and that was at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games. This time, however, it would take more than his own efforts to clinch the coveted spot.
All of the Brazilian male surfers in Puerto Rico - Yago Dora, Toledo and Medina - would have to advance through the rounds to top the men’s team rankings.
That team vibe was evident from the moment that the Brazilian squad set up their unofficial headquarters – a bright blast of yellow jerseys with waving flags and the loudest cheers – on Arecibo’s beach. The teammates never missed each other’s heats and hurried down to the rocky pathway leading out into the sea to do the team’s signature chant.
“Our team, we're very close,” two-time world champion Toledo told Olympics.com. “We always have lunch together, we go surfing together. When everyone is together, it's really cool, because we end up having fun. Everyone plays and has fun and it ends up becoming a lighter environment that also translates to the competition in the water.”
That cheerful atmosphere seemed to rub off on Medina as well. Despite the high stakes at the final Olympic surfing qualifier, the Brazilian leader looked relaxed throughout the competition.
“Gabriel is one of the funniest guys. He's always making jokes, playing with things,” Toledo said. “And that’s it. We should be having fun, and we're happy because we do it right, feeling very light.”
"It was very important to work as a team, in this Olympic spirit,” Medina agreed. “We could work together as friends and that is very important in surfing."
Each of Medina’s seven undefeated heats going into the final was followed by a boisterous celebration on shore.
His yellow-clad teammates and team staff were also the first to welcome Medina when he emerged victorious from the men’s final against Morocco’s Ramzi Boukhiam, and France’s Kauli Vaast and Joan Duru on Sunday, 3 March.
Medina’s win gave Brazil just enough points to top the men’s rankings and earn a third men’s quota for Paris 2024.
After his heroics in Puerto Rico, it is hard to imagine that spot being offered to another athlete. Medina, for one, is confident he will be fighting for gold when the next Olympic surfing competition begins on 27 July.
"Today was a very special day for me, everything went well. I'm happy to have gotten my place at the Olympic Games,” he said. “I depended on the team, and everyone there competed with heart and were an excellent team and I'm happy to have been part of it.
“It was the dream to be in Tahiti with the Brazilian team. We managed to make that dream come true.”
Gabriel Medina x Teahupo’o: The next Olympic quest for gold
Thanks to Brazilian female surfers also topping the women’s team ranking at the 2024 ISA World Surfing Games, Brazil will be the only country at the 2024 Olympic Games with six surfing quotas.
But Medina is not content to settle for the milestone of record Games participation. He is out to avenge for his fourth-place finish at Tokyo 2020 and hoist the Brazilian flag as high as he did in Arecibo.
"I gave my 100 per cent here, event by event, step by step,” Medina said. “Now it's time to start from scratch towards Paris."
The surfer's face lights up whenever he is talking about Teahupo’o. The venue of the next Olympic surfing competition is one of the heaviest and dangerous waves in the world or, as Medina calls it, “my favourite wave on the circuit”.
Given his success there it is easy to see why.
Medina won the Tahiti stages on the WSL Championship Tour in 2014 and 2018, and finished as the runner-up in 2015, 2017, 2019 and 2023. In 2016, he was third and in 2012, fifth.
An Olympic gold at Teahupo'o could be just enough to sate the surfer's ambitious appetites.
"I want to maintain what I'm doing, with focus and a lot of training,” Medina said. “I have no secrets about this. Being an Olympic medallist is my goal and I'm going to do everything I can to achieve that."