‘Conditions were perfect’: how the breathtaking image of Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina was taken

Jérôme Brouillet’s photo of the floating surfer is a potentially defining image of the 2024 Olympics, and came off a wave that gave the Brazilian his best score yet.

LIKE MAGIC: Brazil's Gabriel Medina reacts after getting a large wave in the 5th heat of the men's surfing round 3, during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Pic: JEROME BROUILLET/AFP via Getty Images

On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true.

The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard.