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Gabriel Medina

A partner (long ago) of Neymar, from the coast of São Paulo, the Brazilian idols met when the star of the Brazilian team was still playing for Santos. The friendship remains firm to this day. This year, after the end of the relationship with Bruna Marquezine, Neymar chose to take advantage of his free time and cool off by honoring his friend at a tournament in Portugal.

Before participating in the last stage of the World Surfing Tour (WCT), Medina received support from personalities such as Anitta, Gisele Bündchen, Luciano Huck and Pelé in a video shared on social networks. Even though he is a low profile guy, Medina is identified as a personality of this caliber. Deservedly.

In an interview with Esporte Fantástico, a program on TV Record, Gabriel Medina pointed to Candice Swanepoel as the woman of his dreams. Medina has already said in interviews that he really likes to sing in karaoke. The Brazilian is more successful than his great inspiration in surfing on Instagram: in the dispute for followers, there are 6.6 million to 2.3 million followers.

Pelé made his debut in the Brazilian national team a year before reaching the age of majority. Neymar, ditto. In the field of surfing, Gabriel Medina also joined the world's elite at the same age. Is it mere coincidence? Despite the coincidences with the Santos stars, Medina supports Corinthians, including the club from São Paulo congratulated him on his second World Championship.

Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira, known worldwide as Gabriel Medina, is a two-time world champion professional surfer. He was born on December 23, 1993, in São Sebastião, on the coast of São Paulo. With a brilliant trajectory in surfing throughout his adolescence, Medina reached the elite of world surfing when he was just 17 years old. In 2014, at 20, he became the first Brazilian professional surfing world champion. In the next three years, he was twice 3rd in the world championships and once runner-up.

In 2018, Gabriel Medina became a two-time surfing world champion. The third title was close in 2019, but the surfer from Maresias lost the final of the last stage to compatriot Italo Ferreira. After a year without Tour due to the pandemic. Gabriel Medina came back with everything in 2021, the paulista was largely dominant. This season, the WSL implemented the new Finals system, generating some dissatisfaction with the fact that Medina was the best athlete of the entire year and would have been world champion much earlier. However, in such a special season for Medina, he was also dominant in the 2021 WSL Finals, beating compatriot Filipe Toledo in the grand final to become three-time world champion.

Gabriel Medina began his surfing journey at the age of 9, when he was given his first board by his stepfather Charles. Upon realizing Gabriel's talent, Charles left the running of the family's surf products store in Maresias, on the coast of São Paulo, to his wife Simone and became the young surfer's coach. According to Charles, Gabriel still couldn't do tricks, but he distributed his body weight over his legs in a different way than other boys his age. Thus, he made the board gain more speed.

In February 2017, the first Brazilian surfing world champion inaugurated the Gabriel Medina Institute, at Praia de Maresias, in São Sebastião-SP. The headquarters was built with own resources. The institute's objective is to provide a high level of physical, psychological, medical and technological structure for young surfers, between 10 and 17 years old, from the Maresias region. The only requirements are attendance at training and school (after shifts). Gabriel's mother, Simone Medina is the president of the institute, which initially supported the development of 38 athletes.