Was Gabriel Medina Underscored At The Olympics? The Mayor Of Rio De Janeiro Believes So
172 Views
Photo by Ben Reed/ISA

Was Gabriel Medina Underscored At The Olympics? The Mayor Of Rio De Janeiro Believes So

Twitter becomes the official platform for Olympic surf debates.

elsewhere // Jul 29, 2021
Words by stab
Reading Time: < 1 minute

Ah the Olympic Games, the sporting event where we glorify a third place finish.

Owen Wright and Gabriel Medina went head to head a few days ago, battling it out for surfing’s first-ever Olympic bronze medal. Wright ended up winning the event, which led to numerous claims that Medina was underscored for his airs.

Passionate surf fans including the mayor Of Rio De Janeiro took to twitter to voice their opinions:

The tweet reads:

“If surfing had entered as an Olympic sport at Rio 2016, I would never have allowed what happened with Medina in Tokyo.”

The use of smiling emojis lets us know that this is just a joke, and Paes does not have the intention of time traveling, rallying the votes to get the sport of surfing into the 2016 Olympic Games and then coercing the judge’s panel into adding an extra 0.21 points to Medina’s scorecard.

The video below shows a comparison of Gabe’s back-side air reverse to Kanoa’s frontside rotation, which makes complete sense. Plus, the landings were identical, and neither one was noticeably cleaner, check it out:

In conclusion, we have learned that surf scores are subjective, and we could make arguments out of anything, really. Here’s my take on the significance of surfing’s Olympic debut. Leave a hurtful comment below, and let’s have a full-blown internet fight about it.

Click here for the full story.

Comments

Comments are a Stab Premium feature. Gotta join to talk shop.

Already a member? Sign In

Want to join? Sign Up

Advertisement

Most Recent

We Tracked The Board-Buying Habits Of 7,500 Surfers 

What, why, and how much are we buying? 

Jan 2, 2026

Surfing’s 2025 Q4 Report

Detecting surfing’s dark matters.

Jan 1, 2026

Noa Deane Wins Stab Surfer Of The Year 2025, Best Male

Two films, one edit, and three film sections later, Noa's incomparable work ethic pays off.

Dec 31, 2025

Breaking: Medina Splits With Rip Curl, Noa Deane Signs On The Jagged Line, Yago Dora’s New Brand Revealed

2025's grand industry finale.

Dec 30, 2025

Molly Picklum Wins Stab Surfer Of The Year 2025, Best Female

The year of Pickles, immortalized once and for all.

Dec 30, 2025

Snapt5 Wins 2025’s Film of the Year

Logan Dulien hits a walk-off grand slam in surf filmmaking.

Dec 29, 2025

Harry Bryant and Dav Fox Win 2025’s Edit Of The Year with ‘Roasted’

A study of time, space, and surfboards longer than you need.

Dec 28, 2025

Nathan Florence Wins Best YouTube of 2025

Making him a three-time consecutive 'like and subscribe' SSOTY champ.

Dec 27, 2025

Stab Surfer of the Year 2025: Best Junior (Male And Female)

Congratulations Tya Zebrowski & James Kusitino.

Dec 26, 2025

Watch: ‘Vacation 3’ Presented By Monster Energy

Stab Highway East Coast USA winners bask in victory at Kandui Resort.

Dec 25, 2025

Biggest Movers of 2025

Who made the career biggest leap — forward, backward or otherwise — in the past…

Dec 24, 2025

‘Vacation 3’ In 11 Photos

And 11 behind-the-scenes backstories from the POV of a producer on the ground.

Dec 23, 2025

We Tested The World’s Best Wetsuit (According To You)

365 days prove you're (probably) right.

Dec 23, 2025

Quiksilver Is Bringing Back King Of The Groms, And Sending Four U18 Finalists To Hawaii To Compete For $10k

You've got one month to enter, kids.

Dec 23, 2025

Ellis Ericson Is The Winner Of EAST With Mikey February

The first broken surfboard to ever win one of our board tests.

Dec 22, 2025

Exclusive: Noa Deane Stars In Film Of The Year Nominee “Stimulant”

A flawless degustation cooked up by James Kates.

Dec 21, 2025

Meet Our 2025 Stab Surfer of the Year Contenders

And cast your vote for the winners.

Dec 20, 2025

Stab’s 2025 Holiday Gift Guide — Surf Essentials

Meet the boards, fins, traction, leashes and more that are actually used by the Stab…

Dec 20, 2025
Advertisement