I'll pack my bags, I guess.
Our new world champ is wonderful, bright, effervescent, magnetic, handsome, talented, fun, funny, has a beautiful better half, progressive, snappy, happy, glorious, grand but he said something today that made me very sad.
That put a tear in my eye.
I’m having trouble seeing right now, with that tear, so let’s just go to Reuters. Let’s allow the news organization to give you the details.
On Wednesday, freshly crowned surfing world champion Italo Ferreira sliced through steep, fast-barreling waves off Rio de Janeiro’s Leblon beach and popped several feet into the air.
On the shore, dozens of young fans cheered and shouted as the soft-spoken native of Brazil’s impoverished northeast carved effortlessly through the swell. Most had arrived – parents in tow – for a skimboarding clinic, a close cousin of surfing where riders focus on small waves close to shore.
For Ferreira, one of two surfers set to represent Brazil at the sport’s Olympic debut in Japan this summer, scenes like this help explain how the sport, after decades of trying, finally scored a spot at the Games.
“(The Olympics) is something gigantic for surfing, seeing as just a few years ago, surfing was seen as a sport for bums,” said Ferreira, after exiting the water, signing autographs and snapping photos with fans.
Surfing is no longer a sport for bums?
No?
Well…
First they came for the standard thrusters, and I did not speak
out—
Because I did not ride a standard thruster.
Then they came for the men who wear below-the-knee boardshorts,
and I did not speak out—
Because I did not wear below-the-knee boardshorts.
Then they came for the Hurley team riders, and I did not speak
out—
Because I was not a Hurley team rider.
Then they came for the bums—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Weeping.
Weeping openly.