Italo Ferreira's Next Chapter: Fatherhood

Originally posted on SURFER | By Dashel Pierson | Last updated Jun 2, 2025 3:40 PM ET

Of all the accolades up for grabs in professional surfing, 31-year-old Brazilian Italo Ferreira has won just about all of them. At the Tokyo 2020 Games, he became surfing’s first-ever male Olympic gold medalist. And before that, in 2019, he won his first (and only, as of now) World Surf League world title. Not to mention all the ground-breaking single maneuvers the human can of Red Bull has landed over the years – most recently, perhaps the biggest air ever done in a wave pool.

Now, Italo has another achievement to add to his laundry list of laurels – fatherhood. In an Instagram announcement resembling a 1990s Gap advert over the weekend, Italo and his partner Sofia Larocca shared a pregnancy photoshoot, teasing their incoming bundle of joy. Check out the photos below.

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A post shared by Italo Ferreira (@italoferreira)

Italo shared the post, along with a psalm and the words: “The biggest blessing in our lives.”

The obligatory torrent of congratulations from the surf world overfloweth:

“Wow big papi haha congrats Italo!” – Shane Dorian

“Congrats brother.” – Mick Fanning

“Get ready to live the best days of your life! Just in case, get ready.” – Jadson Andre

“Congratulations I'm so happy for you.” – Sierra Kerr

And so on.

So, who is Italo’s baby mama Sofia Larocca? According to her socials, she’s a “functional clinical nutritionist.” And Italo, strangely, appears to have deleted all his other social media posts, except for the baby announcement. Does this signify something? A new direction for the Brazilian energizer bunny? Less focus on surfing, more on being a family man to come? TBD.

Anyway, per a post from Larocca, it appears they’re having a boy. As translated, she wrote: "Son you've transformed me already. I feel like a brand new person, a brand new woman. Mixed feeling, sensations. Everything is literally too new. I often don't recognize myself as I used to be, when I look in the mirror, when I realize my completely different mood, the nausea... it's all looking up now!”

To which, Italo replied: “I will conquer the world for you!”

Congrats to the happy couple.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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