The world surfing champion, the Brazilian Gabriel Medinaannounced on Monday that will take some time to take care of your mental health and will miss the early stages of the World League, which begins next Saturday in Hawaii.
“Recognizing and admitting that I am not well is being a very difficult process and choosing to take time to take care of myself has been, perhaps, the most difficult decision I have made in my life,” Medina said on his social networks.
The surfer explained that 2021 was an “incredible year” because he became three-time world champion, but also a year in which he experienced “a roller coaster of emotions in and out of the water”, which, he said, affected his “mental health”. and physics”.
“At the end of the season I was completely exhausted. I reached my limit. I took the vaccine (against COVID-19) during the holidays and I thought I was going to get ready in time for the first stage of the new season, which starts in one one of my favorite places in the world, Pipe,” he said.
“It was not the case. I have decided that I will not travel to Hawaii and I am going to take some time so that I can recover mentally and physically. I have a minor hip injury that I have been treating since the end of last year. Added to the body, I have problems emotional issues that I have to deal with,” he added.
Medina said the past few months have been “very exhausting” and that he has wondered whether or not he should go public with his mental health issues.
“But it is fair that all of you, who have always supported me, know the moment I am facing. Mental health is very important. I need to be 100% mentally to compete again. I will come back stronger,” promised the Brazilian.
Medina was the protagonist last year of several controversies that brought him criticism in Brazil, such as when he announced that he would miss the last stage of the world championship, which he had practically won, because he had not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Likewise, days before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, he attacked the Brazilian Olympic Committee for preventing his wife, Yasmin Brunet, from accompanying him to Japan as a coach, when he had already registered the Australian Andy King as his coach.
