Italo Ferreira, who won the first Olympic surfing gold medal in Tokyo, is set to miss the Brazilian team for the 2024 Paris Games.
Brazil surfing officials announced that three-time world champion Gabriel Medina is in line to fill the nation’s last possible Olympic men’s spot, should it earn the berth next year, according to multiple Brazilian media reports.
Filipe Toledo and João Chianca took the two definite spots by virtue of their World Surf League rankings this season (first and fourth going into next month’s five-man finals).
Brazilian officials reportedly announced Thursday that a possible third spot, if Brazil wins the 2024 World Surfing Games men’s team event, will go to the next-highest-ranked Brazilian man this season. That’s sixth-ranked Medina.
Ferreira, 29, ranked No. 13 in the world this season and sixth among Brazilians. Ferreira missed this past week’s contest at the 2024 Olympic venue of Tahiti, reportedly due to a right knee injury.
In Tokyo, Ferreira backed up his 2019 World title by beating host-country favorite Kanoa Igarashi in the first Olympic men’s surfing final.
Later that day, American Carissa Moore won the first Olympic women’s surfing final.
