TEAHUPO’O, Tahiti (Reuters) – Gabriel Medina goes into the Paris Games finals on Monday as favourite to win gold as the Brazilian looks to add surfing’s rarest prize to his glittering career and to a viral Olympic moment earlier in the competition.
Medina, already a superstar back home, shot to new levels of international fame a week ago when a photograph of him kicking off a wave – seemingly levitating a metre above the water, arm extended and finger pointing to the sky – went global.
A master in all kinds of conditions, and with the best record in professional surfing at the stunning venue of Teahupo’o, Medina is odds-on favourite to take gold.
First, however, he must win his semi-final against Jack Robinson, another tube-riding maestro from Australia who has a strong record against the Brazilian and is a former event winner here.
The winner will take on either France’s Tahitian local Kauli Vaast, who has caught some of the best waves of all-time at Teahupo’o, or Peruvian Alonso Correa from semi-final two.
On the women’s side, France’s Johanne Defay will face American world champion Caroline Marks in one semi-final, while Tatiana Weston-Webb of Brazil and Costa Rica’s Brisa Hennessy will meet in the other.
Marks, who set the pace in the first round, is a narrow favourite but all four women have had epic moments and big results at “The End of the Road”, as Teahupo’o is also known.
Teahupo’o delivered unquestionably the greatest day of Olympic surfing competition last Monday, and in fact, the men’s round three action would rank among the best days of any surfing competition ever.
Competition organisers were only able to run one more day of competition since then due to poor conditions, leaving a nail-biting wait for better waves to arrive for the last possible day of competition on Monday.
Forecasts are calling for the surf to build throughout the day to reach 6-8 feet – well overhead – with clean offshore trade winds, setting the stage for a potentially spectacular finale.
(Reporting by Lincoln Feast in Tahiti; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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