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Some of the best imagery in – dare I say it – the history of competitive surfing was captured on day three of the Olympics. I’m talking about jaw-dropping images of the world’s best tube riders standing in building-sized Teahupo’o caverns. As a fan of surfing, my mind was blown sitting in the channel.
But the photo that broke the internet and is currently defining the Paris 2024 Olympics is not a shot of anyone riding waves. It’s of Gabriel Medina kicking out, his index finger extended while his board levitates parallel to his body.
Medina’s social media has been blowing up since the photo was released. Just in the 30 minutes while I was eating my breakfast this morning I watched his account grow by 100,000 followers. And as I write this story several hours later, it’s grown by another 300,000 followers. His post of the image has been liked nearly six million times.
France 24 wondered if it is the “greatest surf shot ever.” BBC is already saying it could be “the photo of the Paris 2024 Olympics.” Formula One racer Lewis Hamilton shared the photo with his 37.5 million Instagram followers. It’s been featured in just about every major media outlet around the world – New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, you name it. It’s exploding across social media. It’s even been brilliantly spoofed.
The photographer who took it, Jerome Brouillet, told me his Instagram following went from 2,000 to 100,000 overnight.
That global chain reaction is the power of the Olympics.
It’s an interesting photo, but not what a surf photographer would call a good “surf shot” by any means. If that photo were taken at a World Surf League Championship Tour event or a freesurf here in Teahupo’o, sure, it might get some attention, but it would attain just a fraction of the global impact. Because it happened in the Olympics, it might be the most-viewed photo of surfing ever.
During the lay day of action here in Tahiti, I sat down at a restaurant in town to chat with Brouillet about the photo. He said he was exhausted and needed something to drink with sugar in it. News outlets and international television channels had been hounding him since the moment he left the venue after Monday’s competition. Even as I met him at our agreed upon time, a news station was shoving a camera and microphone in his face. Today he looked more famous than Medina.
Brouillet, a surf photographer originally from France who has lived in Tahiti for 10 years, acknowledged that it’s ironic it was a non-surfing shot that has catapulted him to fame.
“At first I was like, I would love to get one of my surf photos (going viral), not a celebration photo,” said Brouillet. “But when I saw so many people loving the shot and probably becoming more interested in surfing, I realized two things. A surf shot would have never been known that much and I don’t remember a time when the world was talking so much about surfing. It’s probably a good thing because people need to learn more about surfing.”
Brouillet agreed with my bold claim that perhaps no photo has ever been seen more than his shot. He equated the fervor created by the photo to Tim McKenna’s iconic shot of Laird Hamilton riding the “Millennium Wave” at Teahupo’o in 2000. But the reach of Monday’s shot has been amplified by the advent of social media.
And Brouillet makes a good point, the most iconic sports shots are often not of the athlete actually doing the sport.
“The iconic Muhammad Ali photo (where he’s standing over Sonny Liston) is not a boxing photo,” said Brouillet. “There is one man KO’d and the other man looking at him. Medina’s celebration is probably in the same category if I were to make a comparison.”
Regardless of what you think about the viral photo, it highlights how this is not just another surfing event at Teahupo’o. I can’t stress enough how the Olympics’ global attention and non-endemic penetration are unparalleled to anything surfing has ever experienced. This is new territory. That photo and the moment in which it took place (plus a Gabriel Medina gold medal for good measure) could make Medina the most well-known surfer in the world. Step aside, Slater.
