On the Pacific island of Tahiti, 15 thousand km from Paris, the Olympic surfing competitions are taking place.
There, an AFP photographer Jérôme Brouilleta unique photo was taken — it may be dubbed the best photo of the entire 2024 Olympics.
An incredible surfing shot at the 2024 Olympics
On Monday, July 29, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina gave viewers one of the most memorable images of the 2024 Games, celebrating his Olympic record (9.9 points) in the air.
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The photo looks like it could have been photoshopped. But it's real. The British newspaper The Guardian told how the photo that went viral on the Internet was taken.
The Brazilian, while emerging from under a large wave, flew into the air and demonstrated a finger in flight that pointed to the sky. His board was also in the air in a horizontal position.
Agence France-Presse photographer Jerome Brouillet said the conditions were perfect and the waves were higher than expected. He took the photo from a nearby boat, capturing the surreal image with such precision that some initially suspected Photoshop or artificial intelligence.
“So he (Medina) is at the end of the wave and I don’t see him, and then he comes up and I took four photos and one of them is this one. Taking the photos wasn’t difficult. It was more like predicting the moment and place where Gabriel would push off the wave,” Brouillet said.
Because the images were automatically sent from the camera before the reaction, there was no time to wait. Brouillette admitted to being a little shocked. He said he checked his phone during a six-minute break after the shoot to find a ton of social media notifications.
— I knew there was something going on with that shot, and when it got shared on ESPN, I was like, 'Cool. This is really cool, it's a good shot, and a lot of people like it.' It's not really a surf photo, so it gets more people's attention,” the photographer added.
Gabriel Medina received a 9.90 out of 10 from the judges for his performance— the highest score in Olympic surfing history. In the 1/8 finals, he defeated Japanese Kanoa Igarashi and advanced to the quarterfinals. As for Medina, he is a three-time world champion.
The final surfing competition was supposed to take place on the night of July 31, but it was postponed due to bad weather. The time of the final rounds will be announced later.
