“Filipe is going through a difficult time,” said Filipe Toledo’s father, Ricardo, in a video he posted on Instagram yesterday. “Mainly because of all the nonsense that is being said about him, distilling on the internet,” added the former Brazilian champion and ISA masters medallist.

“I thought that if it were Kelly who had a health problem, everyone would slander him and belittle him, no… Everything is fine, he is a great rider, he is in control, he has 11 world titles, I don’t want to compare Filipe with Kelly. No. We are talking about people, human beings who are capable of going through difficult times, moments of disagreement that leave one in an uncomfortable zone to go there and show the best. All athletes in all modalities have gone through that many times and everything is fine. What is the problem?” added Toledo.

“I think people should respect and cannot undermine the entire history of an athlete throughout his life, everything he fought and went through to achieve and where he got to. I am sure that 99% of the people who have been talking a lot of shit on the internet in the last few days were there applauding when he won the stages and became world champion. And now something happened and people are already coming back with stones in their hands,” he explained.

The father of the two-time world champion ended his message by reflecting that worse things happen in football and that surfing is not far from resembling what happens in the aforementioned sport.

Toledo began his message by saying that “despite all the attacks of our enemies on our families, it is the word of God that we are victors, and people believe in that and trust God a lot.”

In the text accompanying the video, Toledo says: “Filipe is very tired of all this! My love and affection for you, my son, you have every right to be tired and to have your bad days, and no one can hold you responsible for that, no one! If you are not happy, or you don’t like it, unfollow him, delete one of your followers, but don’t come and talk about something you don’t know and have never experienced in your life.”

Last Wednesday, January 31, after having a bad debut series at the Pipe Pro, in which he scored 1,77, Filipe Toledo did not show up for his series saying that he had food poisoning.

The incident sparked a wave of criticism and also defense on social media.

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A post shared by Ricardo Toledo (@ricardinhotoledo)