Neymar Jr mocks Japanese surf Olympian Kanoa Igarashi with three-year-old tweet

"Laughing not to cry."

The football player Neymar, whom BeachGrit readers will remember from such epics as “Neymar had ‘intimate sexual encounter’ with big-wave star Pedro Scooby at secret sex party claims Brazilian influencer” and “News outlets speculate on Gabriel Medina and Neymar’s close friendship” has curb-stomped Japanese Olympian Kanoa Igarashi after unearthing a three-year-old tweet.

A little background.

Two days back, Neymar’s best friend Gabriel Medina created Olympic history with the highest wave score in the Games, scoring a 9.9 and eliminating Kanoa Igarashi from competition.

In 2021 at the Covid-delayed Tokyo Games, Igarashi narrowly beat Medina who has, as they say, the memory of an elephant.

“Tokyo was a hard one to deal with because I was so close to the medal,” said Medina after his historic win. “Kanoa took me out on that one but we had revenge just now. It’s good to get him back. We respect each other, (but) it’s just competition. You have to surf to win. Today was my day. He had his day in Tokyo.”

Medina was less sanguine in 2021 when his lunge for Olympic Gold was stymied by controversial judging decisions in both his semi-final and bronze-medal heats.

And, the three-time world champ reacted furiously when Olympic medallist Kanoa Igarashi appeared to mock the Brazilian in a tweet.

In Portuguese, for Igarashi is fluent in Portuguese, a sort of American English as well as Japanese, Igarashi tweeted, “Chora chora q tou feliz! Hehehehe” followed by “Bla bla bla” and a laughing emoji.

Translate, “Cry cry. I’m happy!”

Bla bla bla, pretty explanatory.

Medina, cry-baby etc.

The tweet went pretty mad, 877 retweets, 8,337 likes and 11.5k quote tweets.

Medina hit back at Igarashi with,

“Clowning around after you win is easy. Everyone respects each other on the circuit. I won countless times from him and never played. I prefer to work in silence, do mine and focus… I watched the waves. That’s why I held back my words, I wouldn’t speak without having watched. Comparing my best waves and his two best ones, I won the heat. I’m really sad…I don’t want to let it shake me. I received huge support from Brazil, and that only makes me stronger. Those sad days will pass and I will bring even more pride to us.”

Ominously and prophetically, Medina added he wanted to light up Tahiti at the 2024 Paris Games at Teahupoo.

“I hope to be in the next Olympics in Tahiti, which is a wave I love. There is still a long time, three years, but my dream starts from now…”

Well, revenge is a dish best served direct from the frigo, as they say in France, and after easily dispensing with his foe, Medina’s best friend Neymar unearthed Igarashi’s old tweet and deftly added,

“Oi amigo.”

Neymar’s 64 million followers were, as you might imagine, almost universally on his side although Igarashi did have the grace to reply, “Damn, the canoe already sunk haha.”

And, on Medina’s Instagram, “Laughing not to cry.”

Oi amigo https://t.co/eiQG3KSg32

— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) July 30, 2024