Gabriel Medina in action©AFP
AFP photographer Jérôme Brouillet was prepared for mayhem as he watched Brazilian Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina paddle out into the biggest wave of the day at one of the world’s most powerful breakout spots. But he didn’t expect the photo of Medina breaking out of the wave after his Olympic record-setting surf in Tahiti would become a global sensation and perhaps the iconic image of the sport and the Olympics. Brouillet was in a boat on the channel – a deeper, calmer body of water next to the wave – but the initial movement was not clearly visible.
But that was exactly where he wanted to go.
Brouillet was in a great position, waiting for Medina to “kick out,” or come out of the face at the end of his run.
“All the photographers are waiting for it, you know Gabriel Medina is going to start something, especially in Teaupo,” Brouillet said.
“I know something’s going to happen. The only question is where he’s going to kick out, because I’m blind!”
“He sometimes does acrobatic gestures and that was the case this time too so I pressed the button.”
Brouillet captured Medina holding his surfboard sideways toward the sky, one finger pointed skyward, and soaring straight up over the waves.
“I think when he was in the tube he knew he was riding the biggest wave of the day. He was jumping out of the water like, ‘Dude, this is a 10,'” Brouillé said.
Brouillet also suspected he’d caught something special, but he wasn’t 100 percent sure.
“When I shoot with the Tifpo, I don’t shoot in that fast burst mode because at the end of the day, if I press the button too hard, I’ll end up taking 5,000 photos in one day, and I don’t want that!”
“I took four photos of him coming out of the water, and this is one of them.”
The photo was used in numerous publications around the world and shared or liked millions of times online.
“This is quite possibly the greatest sports photograph ever taken,” Australian media conglomerate News.com.au posted on its Facebook page.
Time magazine called it “the triumphant image of the 2024 Summer Olympics.”
Medina posted the photo on her Instagram account, where it quickly garnered more than 2.4 million likes.
Despite the accolade, Brouillet said the celebrations would have to wait as he still had to film the rest of the competition.
“I’m sleeping at a friend’s house near Choupo and I’m going to try and keep it quiet because if there’s an event tomorrow I’ll have to get up at 5am!”
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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