Brazilians wanted one thing on their television screens during these Olympic Games: surfing. And specifically, Medina. Photo: ISA
Without a soccer team to root for at the 2024 Olympics, Brazilian fans turned out in record numbers to watch a different Olympic sport: surfing. According to the Brazilian market research company Kantar Ibope, on August 5, 47.5 million Brazilians tuned into Gabriel Medina’s bronze medal heat, Tatiana Weston Webb’s women’s final, and the surfing medal ceremony.
The audience broke Paris 2024 records for Globo – the Olympic rights-holder in Brazil – on free-to-air television. Compared to the previous four Mondays before the Games, the August 5 audience represented an increase of 5.9 million or 14 percent.
On August 5 surfing was competing with artistic gymnastics where Brazilian Receba Andrade took the gold (over the USA star Simone Biles) and a Brazil versus USA men’s volleyball match. Gymnastics reached 21 million and volleyball reached 29.3 million, markedly less than surfing’s audience.
When Medina qualified for Paris 2024, I wrote an op-ed outlining that it wasn’t just a big win for Medina, but a big win for the Olympics. Medina’s star power, which is often amplified by soccer star Neymar’s (the two are friends), was exactly what surfing needed to boost its Olympic profile. Remember, the cut of the TV revenue that surfing will receive in LA 2028 is based on metrics like TV viewership, digital media popularity, and quantity of media coverage (among others). Medina sent all of these metrics through the roof with his tube riding and viral kick-out photo.
Surfing will soon be placed into one of five tiers to determine its share of the Olympic funding. Based on what we saw in Brazil – one of the largest markets – I have a feeling that surfing won’t be placed in the lowest tier. It’s shown that it deserves more.
