Photo: WSL
Nineteen combined world titles have returned to the Championship Tour in the span of a week, with the WSL announcing wildcard recipient after wildcard recipient recently. The first was Carissa Moore, who spent 2024 and 2025 off tour and became a first-time mother in the process. Then came the news that 8-time world champ Stephanie Gilmore had decided to end her own two-year sabbatical. John John Florence came next. And now the league has shared that three-time champion and 2024 Olympic bronze medalist Gabriel Medina will be back for the 2026 Championship Tour with a wildcard, as well.
That’s a lot of star power returning to the tour, but a significant distinction between Medina’s absence and the other wildcard recipients in the past week is that Medina missed 2025 due to injury. In January, just before the start of the new season, Medina landed an air in Maresias, Brazil that caused a severe pectoral injury. He underwent surgery soon after and was originally told by doctors he’d require six to eight months of recovery before competing again.
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That timeline proved to be on point, as the Brazilian told the WSL in May that he’d like to compete in August’s Tahiti Pro. Event wildcards had already been secured for Olympic gold medalist Kauli Vaast and the eventual local trials winner, Mihimana Braye. The league did end up extending an injury replacement spot to Medina, who’s won the event twice and has earned a third place finish or higher every time he’s competed there since 2014. He wasn’t able to accept the invitation though “due to previously scheduled commitments,” the WSL said in a press release.
We we won’t see Medina and the other wildcard recipients surf competitively until April of 2026 at Bells Beach.
