Gabriel Medina

Gabriel Medina is a Brazilian professional surfer, born on 22 December 1993 and raised in the Maresias district on Brazil's coast. He began surfing at four and won his first national championship at 11. In 2009, at 15, he became the youngest surfer to win a major Qualifying Series event and the youngest male winner of an open-age professional competition, at the Maresias Surf International. He joined the World Tour in 2011, became the first Brazilian world champion in 2014 and won again in 2018 and 2021. In 2015 he was the first Brazilian to win the Hawaiian Triple Crown of Surfing. He is credited as the second person to execute a backflip on a surfboard and the first to land one in competition, at the Oi Rio Pro in 2016, and he won an Olympic bronze medal at the 2024 Games.