Olympics-Surfing-Ferreira completes long ride from cooler lid to gold

Tokyo 2020 Olympics - Surfing - Men's Shortboard - Medal Ceremony - Tsurigasaki Surfing Beach, Chiba, Japan – July 27, 2021. Gold medallist Italo Ferreira of Brazil wearing a protective face mask celebrates on the podium REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

ICHINOMIYA, Japan (Reuters) - There can have been few more humble beginnings to an Olympic career than those of Italo Ferreira, who started out surfing on the lid of his father's cooler box and ended up with a gold medal at the Tokyo Games.

The 27-year-old started out small, like the seaside town Baia Formosa on Brazil's northeastern coast where he grew up, starting with his dad's lid and progressing to borrowing boards from his cousins before being discovered at the age of 12.