Brazilian surfer Filipe Toledo, two-time reigning world champion, announced that he was withdrawing from the WSL circuit this year for “mental health” reasons, but he did not question his participation in the Paris Olympic Games 2024. “I’m going to take some time off, relax, take care of my family, take care of myself, and concentrate for the Olympics,” said the 28-year-old surfer in a series of stories on Instagram on Sunday. evening.
The only Brazilian to have won two consecutive world titles, in 2022 and 2023, “Filipinho” made this announcement at the end of the first stage of the World League Surf (WSL) circuit season, in Hawaii, where he retired at time of the draft. Despite its withdrawal this year, Toledo will benefit from a wild card (invitation) from the WSL to return in 2025.
“I have always been honest about my issues, both injury and mental health. Competing at the highest level for a decade has taken a toll on me, I need rest to recover before the next chapter of my career,” he said on Instagram. Another Brazilian surfing star, three-time world champion Gabriel Medina, also took a break from his career for mental health reasons in 2022.
The surfing events for the Paris Olympics will take place from July 27 to 30 on the Teahupo’o lagoon, in Tahiti, in French Polynesia. Brazil has been one of the leading surfing nations in recent years. In 2021, Italo Ferreira won the first gold medal in history for men in this discipline which entered the Olympic program at the Tokyo Olympics.
