Ítalo Ferreira
Last week, Ítalo Ferreira became the first person* ever to win a gold medal in Olympic surfing. His story is almost ridiculously storybook. As the newsweekly Veja (“Look”) explained,
The first Olympic surfing champion, the Brazilian Ítalo Ferreira completed an incredible journey in the sport from when he started to surf on his dad’s Styrofoam cooler lid in Rio Grande do Norte until he won the Gold medal in the Tokyo Games. The 27-year-old athlete became interested in surfing young, in the coastal city of Baía Formosa (RN) [“Beautiful Bay”], where he grew up, starting to catch waves on his fisherman dad’s Styrofoam lid and progressing to boards borrowed from his cousins before being discovered at the age of 12.
In addition to the oft-repeated story of poverty, struggle, and that Styrofoam cooler lid, Ferreira’s luggage was lost on his flight to Japan and he suffered a broken board, winning the gold on his backup board.
*Only because the men’s final was held (less than an hour) before the women’s final. History will remember that both Ferreira and American Carissa Moore were first.
The Brazilian federal government has a program providing financial support to athletes. The above picture was tweeted out by the official government account. It says
SURFING
Ítalo Ferreira wins the first gold medal for Brazil in the Olympic Games
- All the surfers representing the country in Tokyo benefit from the Athletic Scholarship
- Direct investments in the sport totaled R$ 1.4 million, enough to grant 56 scholarships to those practicing the sport
- This sport became part of the Federal Government’s program after it was included in the Games
Regional pride is understandably high for this surfer from one of the smallest and poorest states in Brazil. The picture above was tweeted by @Guimarães13PT with the following text:
The surfer Ítalo Ferreira wins the first Brazilian gold medal in the Olympics. A demonstration of the power of the Northeast. Another athlete who deserves all our recognition is Silvana Lima from Paracuru, Ceará. She sparkled in the games. Brazil recognizes them; the Northeast is grateful.