São Sebastião (Brasil), 1993

By Fernanda Gdynia Morotti

At twenty years old, Gabriel Medina Pinto Ferreira became the first Brazilian to win the World Surf League (WCT) title, in Hawaii (USA), in 2014.

Born on the northern coast of the state of São Paulo, he began surfing in childhood, encouraged by his stepfather and surf coach Charles Medina. At eleven, he won his first national championship (under-12 category), starting a streak of victories in the amateur championships he entered. He was a three-time state champion and won the Volcom International under-14 circuit, the Quicksilver King of Groms, and the Rip Curl Grom Search.

At fifteen, he signed a contract with the Australian company Rip Curl, and a year later was already part of the sport’s elite, the ASP World Tour (WCT), which brings together the 36 best surfers in the world. In 2012, he was the first surfer to perform one of the rarest and most difficult maneuvers in the sport during a competition, the backflip, a backward somersault. In 2014, in Hawaii, he became world champion after his main title rivals, American Kelly Slater and Australian Mick Fanning, failed to reach the quarterfinals. The title earned him a spot on the list of the 100 most influential people in the world, according to the American magazine Time, in the Icons category.