Teahupo’o. Photographer Jerome Brouillet knew he was in for praise when he saw Brazilian Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina ride one of the biggest waves of the day amid one of the world’s strongest surf breaks. Little did he know that the photo he captured of Medina feeling like he was flying over the water would become a global sensation, let alone an iconic image of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The 30-year-old photographer was on a boat in the Teahupo’o Channel in French Polynesia, in an area of deeper, calmer water, next to the wave but without a clear line of sight.
He was, however, exactly where he needed to be.
What he captured was one of the most remarkable images of the Olympics to date: Medina rising above the waves with a finger pointed to the sky and his surfboard at his side, pointing upward.
The best of the Games
The image has been used by dozens of publications around the world, and has been shared or liked on social media tens of thousands of times since it was first posted on Monday night.
Even the three-time world champion from Brazil shared it on his Instagram profile, followed by more than 11.8 million users.
Magazine TIME He described it as “the defining image of Olympic triumph.”
He New York Times as “one of the most iconic photos of Paris.”
“You know Gabriel Medina, especially at Teahupo’o, is going to rock and do something,” Brouillet said. “All the photographers are waiting for him. The only tricky part is knowing where he’s going to do it.”
Medina, 30, is famous for his explosive aerial maneuvers, which often see him and his board launched into the air at breakneck speeds.
Brouillet was waiting for him when the São Paulo native dropped into the sea and dove into the tube, achieving an Olympic record of 9.90 and qualifying for the quarter-finals.
“Sometimes he does acrobatic gestures. This time he did it and then I pressed the button” of the camera, said the photographer.
The celebration will have to wait
Medina’s reaction immediately showed that he knew how good his presentation had been. Brouillet also suspected that he had captured something special.
“I took four photos of him out of the water and this was one of the four,” he said.
The photo is so spectacular and even somewhat surreal that some social media users mistakenly believed it was a montage.
“At first I thought, ‘This photo is so cool,’ but then people started talking about it… I didn’t realize how viral the shot was.”
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– 2024-08-03 09:34:51
