"Money is no use if you don't have the health to enjoy it."
The three-time world champ Gabriel Medina, Brazil’s greatest sporting export since Neymar, is rumoured to have, privately, drawn the curtain on his wildly successful professional surfing career.
One week ago, Medina, who is twenty-eight, quit the tour just before the opening event at Pipe citing mental health issues.
“I have emotional issues that I need to deal with. Recognizing and admitting to myself that I’m not well has been a very difficult process and choosing to take time to take care of myself was perhaps the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my entire life,” he wrote.
Shortly after, Brazil media reported the breakdown of his marriage to thirty-three-year-old Sports Illustrated model Yasmin Brunet and the fire sale of the pair’s beachfront house in Sao Paulo.
And before all that, there was the estrangement of his mama and step-daddy and a wild feud between his wife and his mama over the existence of a supposed sex tape.
Now, and from a relatively secure source, Medina will likely “never compete again”. Sponsorship from Adidas, Corona, Bradesco Bank, phone company Oi, as well as Rip Curl, Oakley and so on, has pushed the champ’s annual income north of five-mill, a hundred gees a week, US, before he even leaves one of his houses.
In an Instagram post five days ago following his withdrawal from Pipe, Brunet wrote of Medina’s struggles on tour,
“I have spoken to you here many times about my battles with depression and anxiety. Only those who have any kind of mental disorder know how difficult it is to deal with it. As we live, we learn a lot, for example, without your mental and physical health, you have nothing. They are the most important possessions you have. It’s no use money, it’s no use if you don’t have the health to enjoy it.
“Last year was a very difficult year for me and Gabriel. I’ve said many interviews that anyone else in his place wouldn’t have been able to get where he did, in fact anyone in his place wouldn’t even have gotten out of bed. I saw firsthand everything he suffered because I suffered along with him. I saw him hold back a lot that was extremely unfair to him. Many times we were slaughtered needlessly without even knowing the truth of what they were publishing.
“A lot of lies were told and we had to swallow a lot of things to not take the focus off the competition because at the end of the day the goal was to make him fulfill his dream of being a three-time champion and we did it.”
View this post on Instagram
What’s Medina got to gain from more orbits of a tour?
More titles?
More money?
Or is the animal inside that drove him to three crowns gonna bite hard?
Your comments are still here. Every one of them.
Twelve years of BeachGrit comments came across from Disqus. Connect and we will show you how many are yours. We get your username, nothing else.
Connect Disqus to reveal.
Hope he will be able to compete in pumping Gland and Teahupoo
The greatest mistake we made as a country was allowing women to read and write, to say nothing of their right to vote or surf.
Well why was he suffering was it the sexual orientation and coming out conundrum
He made a sex tape with his mom and his girlfriend got angry about it? What drama!
How old is the second oldest person on tour?
Jordy ‘Christ’ Smith – 33
Owen Wright – 32
Shit! Would’ve guessed Jordy was 28
I would love to know how the average age on tour has changed from last year to this year. Lots of veterans retiring, and some blood qualifiers (instead of the ‘journeymen’ we’ve been getting for the past decade).
Whoever said “he’s never going to compete again” is just trying to piss him off so he will most definitely compete again.
Kelly usually had it wrapped up before Pipe didn’t he?
Pretty sure we came back and won 5 more titles after that cry fest at pipe
We
What are you talking about. He just returned to training check his Instagram. He will be back this year .
Portugal
definition of bitch
so so so many theories, possibilities, predictions to make on this one… Gabe has the limelight for a few days… and as Claiming Meds, Jimmy the Saint, and others already spoke of, you know who must be figuring out ways to take back this limelight… get that return flight back to the mainland ready Jake…
So all Gabe’s need is to go live in Australia!!!
He’ll learn how to do the primitive soul surf, and how to be a soul surfer! And, of course, he’ll learn how to forget and how to do, forever, all that thing about competitive and progressive surf, and his obsession with world titles!!!
In the current state of affairs, no one wants to move to Australia
I would fucking love to see Medina do a piss-take Youtube series where he pretends to move to Australia and become a hipster.
Full on performance art level shit.
He’ll need 5x vax shots before that
Geez, Slater has had public bust ups with chicks that have made pornos (Pammy) and Supermodels (Giselle) . Still loves his Mum though
He’s already back to training. Stop.
Jesus Christ, Medina will be surfing in comps by June. This is all a bunch of hot garbage. “Never compete again” LOfuckingL
Agree, when like John John was going to sail off into the sunset!
I picture you commenting from an over turned shopping trolley/cardboard box cubby house for some reason..
If you got an up from Cote, you’re doing it wrong.
If slater retired due to tough competition, he would have retired the year Medina qualified.
Ke11y had already retired once by the time Andy made the tour. History counts.
If this is true, (& I doubt it!) what is this curse of 3 male World Titles? Only 2 people in 45 years have gone beyond 3 – Slater & MR.
I think he wants to do it, but he also wants to do it with proper challenge. He’s going to let JJF have a clean sweep this year so they are both level on 3, then when they are both healthy they can finally go head-to-head for a title and see who is the first one to add themselves to that list.
He wants a fair fight.
Now that would be a great stoush!