A surreal photo of Olympic surfer Gabriel Medina is deserving of its own gold medal.
In the image, the Brazilian athlete and his board are suspended side by side midair above the water. He had just completed a near-perfect ride, landing a 9.90 score — the highest single-wave score in Olympic history.
It was captured moments after he emerged from the wave’s barrel. Raising his arms to gesture “10” with both hands, he soared into the air on his exit, one finger pointing up to the sky in celebration.
It was captured Monday by Jérôme Brouillet of Agence France-Presse in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, where the surf competition is taking place.
Brouillet told the Guardian snapping the picture was all about timing.
“So he is at the back of the wave and I can’t see him and then he pops up and I took four pictures and one of them was this one,” he said.
“It was not hard to take the picture,” he added. “It was more about anticipating the moment and where Gabriel will kick off the wave.”
He said he was “a little bit shocked” by the viral reaction.
“I was just checking my phone on the six-minute break after the shoot and I had lots of notifications on social media and I thought something is happening with this shot and it was shared on ESPN and I thought: ‘cool,’” he told the Guardian.
“Hard to believe this is a real photo, but it’s on Getty” one social media user said of the snap.
Another commented it might be the “best picture of the Olympics.”
Medina was competing in the fifth heat in Round 3 of the men’s surfing competition. The score helped him beat Kanoa Igarashi, the Japanese surfer who defeated him at the Tokyo Olympics. Medina now moves on to the quarter-finals to face fellow Brazilian Joao Chianca.
“Felt amazing to get some good waves and I almost got a 10 so I was really happy with that,” Medina told Olympics.com. “It’s really a dream come true to compete in waves like this for the Olympics.”