Special coverage of Olympic surfing is presented by Surf City Swellboards, Chris Sal, Milan Surfboards, Vissla, WINGS Pro Tour, Capi Bar y Chivipizza - All photos by ISA/Jimenez

If the conditions hold, it will be difficult for anyone to beat Italo Ferreira in this tournament. He made that clear in his heat, surfing 15 waves and making scores out of nothing. He made mistakes, but he is so dangerous in these waves that he immediately solves them.

He is motivated by the whole Olympic movement and knows that winning gold would make a huge difference in his career. He says in this interview that it would be a personal difference, but for Olympic-loving Brazil, it would be huge.

Below he reviews some of the beginning of the competition and much of his surfing and the Olympic Games.

Is this championship different or do you take it as the same as any other?
There is only one chance, only one shot for this event and you have to dedicate time to make the distance. It is a historic event.

Did you feel a lot of pressure in the water?
When I started to get into the rhythm of the drums, things started to happen. I like to surf and I don't like to wait. So what I did was look for lots of waves to improve my score against my opponents. When there are waves I just surf, I don't worry, that's my way of competing.

The conditions are perfect for you, don't you think?
I come from a place where the waves are similar, I surf these types of waves all the time and I have an advantage because I create big moves on small waves and that impresses the judges. But it is difficult, because you have opponents and you see them doing moves with high notes and it challenges you more and you want to create something better and bigger and sometimes you get caught in the middle. But it is part of it, I like to surf a lot of waves to be able to understand what is going to happen to me on the drumline and that increases my scores to beat the drumline.

At the beginning you fell, you landed a really good aerial but you didn't complete it, you hit the water and 10 seconds later you were completing a similar one, how do you do it?
That's what I was saying, when you manage to catch enough waves and create the maneuvers, it helps you, you have more confidence. The other day we were catching more lefts, they were good lefts, we were thinking about that, we were going to the left and when today in the morning the wind changed to the right, that already changed my mind, anyway, on the right I work better. With the left I don't work as well but ultimately, it's about getting into the heat, taking advantage of the opportunities and creating the maneuvers that help you improve the score.

What impact do you think an Olympic gold medal can have on you?
I think that for me as a person it would be incredible, different, there is fame but for me it would be a personal victory.

What's better, an Olympic medal or winning the CT?
Since I'm already a world champion, now what I want is to win here.

There is a chance that the final will be against Gabriel Medina, how do you see that scenario?
He is in the other bracket, many things can happen, but I am not thinking about the opponents I will compete against, nor am I looking at my opponents. I only think about my battery, being there at the right time, not falling behind, as happened to me the other time (laughs) and believing that it is possible.

What do you think about the surfers who don't compete in the CT and qualified for this event?
There are the Peruvians, there is a team from Argentina, there are many people, a group that can have very good results and grow in that event but, as I said, I think that thinking about others is not the option.