AFP photographer Jerome Brouillet knew fireworks were in store when he saw Brazilian Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina paddle into one of the biggest waves of the day at one of the world’s strongest surf spots.
What he didn’t know was that his image of Medina jumping out of the wave after an Olympic-record ride in Tahiti would become a worldwide sensation and likely a defining image of the sport and the Games.
Brouillet was on a boat in the channel – an area of deeper, calmer water next to the wave, but with no clear view of the original action.
But it was exactly where he wanted to be.
Brouillet was in a prime position, waiting for Medina to “kickout” – leave the wave wall – at the end of his run.
“Every photographer is waiting for this. They know that Gabriel Medina, especially in Teahupo’o, will take the lead and do something,” said Brouillet.
“You know something is going to happen. The only tricky moment is when he shoots? Because I’m blind!
“Sometimes he makes an acrobatic gesture and this time he did that and so I pressed the button.”
Brouillet caught Medina floating straight above the waves, one finger pointing to the sky, his surfboard pointing skyward beside him.
“I think when he was in the tube, he knew he was in one of the biggest waves of the day. He jumped out of the water and thought, ‘Man, I think that’s a 10,'” Brouillet said.
Brouillet suspected that he had also captured something special, but was not 100 percent sure.
“When I’m shooting in Teahupo’o, I don’t use such a high burst rate. Because if you press the button too hard, you’ll end up with 5,000 shots at the end of the day and I don’t like that!”
“I took four shots of him out of the water and one of the four shots is this photo.”
The image has been used by numerous publications around the world and has been shared or liked millions of times online.
“This is possibly the best sports photo of all time,” Australian media group News.com.au posted on its Facebook page.
TIME magazine described it as “the defining image of the triumph of the 2024 Summer Olympics.”
Medina posted the photo on his own Instagram account and quickly received over 2.4 million likes.
Despite the awards, Brouillet said the celebrations would have to wait as he still had to film the rest of the competition.
“I’m staying at a friend’s house near Teahupo’o and we’re going to take it easy because if the event is tomorrow I’ll have to get up at five in the morning!”
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