Surfing-Toledo enjoying mental health break, ready to win Olympic gold medal

MADRID : Two months after double world champion Filipe Toledo shocked the surfing world by withdrawing from the professional tour to take a one-year mental health break, the Brazilian is in a happy place as he looks forward to the Paris Olympics.

Walking in Madrid's Retiro Park on a sunny spring day, the 29-year-old said he has no regrets and that taking a sabbatical from the World Surf League was the best thing he'd ever done.

Toledo points out that his one year break means stepping away from the pressure of being on the tour month after month and that he will have a go at winning a gold medal in the Olympics. The surfing event is to be held in Tahiti.

He said that his break is the best preparation for the Games.

"I haven't been this happy and relaxed in a long time," Toledo told Reuters on Friday ahead of attending the Laureus Awards as a nominee for action sportsperson of the year.

Toledo is a long way from home in California and from Margaret River, Australia, where his rivals are slugging it out at the fifth event of a professional tour where he made his name as the fastest surfer in the world.

He dominated the past two seasons with his unmatched repertoire of searing carves and aerials.

"I'm in a great place right now," he said. "I'm enjoying my family, enjoying my kids being home, being a normal parent... a human being. It just feels great."

Son of former double Brazilian champion Ricardo Toledo, Filipe entered the circuit as a teenager in 2013 carrying the pressure of being a wunderkind, which he said led to struggles with depression in 2019 and 2020.

Those were "dark times" when surfing "became an obligation," he added.

He bounced back in 2021, finishing runner-up in the title race behind compatriot Gabriel Medina,