In Tokyo 2020, surfing was included for the first time as an Olympic sport, and Brazilian Italo Ferreira beat off Japanese Kanoa Igarashi to win the first gold medal in the sport.
í. Ferreira Olympic Games Tokyo 2020
Italo Ferreira of Brazil and Carissa Moore of the United States won the first ever surfing gold medals in the Olympics on Tuesday at Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach.
Moore defeated South African long shot Briana Buitendag, and Ferreira beat Japan’s Kanoa Igarashi after breaking his board on the opening wave of the final.
After a tense 35-minute battle with world number one Gabriel Medina, Australia’s Owen Wright took the bronze in the men’s division, edging out the Brazilian by two-tenths of a point, and Japan’s Amuro Tsuzuki beat the United States’ Caroline Marks, who was only 19 at the time, to take the bronze in the women’s division.
Large, clean waves greeted the final day’s competitors, who were ecstatic, but a strong onshore breeze quickly diminished their enthusiasm as the swell became choppier and more erratic.
Neither of those things stopped Ferreira and Moore from going for broke as they chased Olympic gold.
Having started to surf as a child in Brazil on the lid of his father’s fishing bucket, 27-year-old Ferreira jumped on any wave that looked good, racking up scores of 7.0 and 7.77 to take an early lead as Igarashi struggled on the beach where his father had learned to surf.
With one minute remaining, Ferreira, confident in his victory, began surfing his way in to the shore, where he was met by the final horn and hauled shoulder-high out of the ocean by his colleagues.
One of the best days of my life, for sure.
”That was a hard day, but it was also a dream come true. In an effort to fully appreciate the present moment, I have put in a lot of training over the past few months “a sobbing Italo revealed to the press.
To reach to the final, Buitendag had to defeat seven-time world champion Stephanie Gilmore and 19-year-old American prodigy Caroline Marks. However, Moore proved too much in the large, powerful, and unpredictable waves.
The 28-year-old surfer caught two terrific waves just over the halfway mark of the heat, and while Buitendag fought to the end, there was little she could do to close the gap. Moore ripped off a final victory wave before greeting the South African surfer at the water’s edge.
Conclusion
It was a fitting way to crown surfing’s Olympic debut as two of its boldest athletes were honoured with a place in history, from the knee-high ripples of Sunday’s opening rounds through Tuesday’s tumultuous waves. Thanks for read our Article í. Ferreira Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
