A routine training session turned into a lifesaving mission when Brazilian Olympic kite surfer Bruno Lobo plucked a drowning woman from the ocean and brought her to shore.
The 2024 Olympian was testing new camera equipment off the coast of Sao Luis on Friday when he heard a woman calling for help, he wrote on Instagram. He swam over to investigate, and with the cameras still running, he caught the dramatic rescue on video.
It was cloudy at around 5:40 p.m. on Friday when he decided to use the newly arrived equipment, despite wind conditions that were “not the best,” he recounted.
“After sailing a few meters, I heard a cry for help” and followed the cry to see a young woman flailing in the open water.
“I quickly approached her with the kite,” he wrote. “I tried to calm her down and asked her to climb on my back. She was quite tired and powerless. I used the equipment to bring her safely to the sand where the lifeguards performed first aid at the seaside, and thanks to God everything went well.”
Lobo started out on a note of gratitude for “the day that God used me as an instrument to save this young woman, all honor and glory to Him” and admonished swimmers to “stay alert about the danger of the sea, rivers and anywhere you don’t know because the current in some places is usually very strong!”
Though lauded as a hero, the 31-year-old orthopedic doctor was humble.
“Thank you for all the messages,” Lobo wrote. “I only did what needed to be done and what was within my reach!”
The video showed him making his way over to the woman, whose head was barely above the water, and steadying himself with his kite and board while she climbed onto his back. He then let the wind pull them both to shore.
The clip ended with a shot of the exhausted swimmer being carried into shallow waters and greeted by her mates and lifeguards, then giving Lobo a quick hug before they all walk away and Lobo heads the other way. The rescued woman expressed her gratitude on his Instagram post.
“Words can’t describe my gratitude!” wrote the woman in a comment, according to the Olympic Games, which also shared the moment. “It was the salvation that God and my guides sent to me. I really could not handle it if I spent five minutes on the high sea, even knowing how to swim and using anti-drowning techniques. I wish you showers of blessings in your life!”
Lobo has had his share of blessings, at least in the athletics department, as a gold medal winner in the 2019 Pan American Games in Peru, a title he defended at the 2023 games in Chile, according to World Sailing, the sport’s governing body. In Paris in 2024 he finished seventh in the Olympic Games’ Men’s Kite Event.