RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Almost eight months have passed since the end of the Tokyo Olympics, marked by the best campaign in Brazil’s history, and the country seems to be going strong in the sport. During the period, Brazil has won World Championships, historic victories against Olympic medalists in several sports, and has seen comebacks by athletes who were “almost” in Tokyo.
It is still too early to make any medal projections for 2024, as the first major parameter is the 2022 World Championships. Still, the reality is that Brazil has had great results, despite the political crisis that has set in COB in recent weeks with the resignation of Jorge Bichara.
Brazilian highlights in the Olympics, such as Rebeca Andrade, Rayssa Leal, Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze, and Thiago Braz, have won medals in World Championships this post-Tokyo period. On the other hand, Darlan Romani, Pâmela Rosa, Tatiana Weston Webb, and Keno Marley, who saw the podium slip away in Japan, have already shown that they are ready for the new cycle. It is worth remembering that stars such as Isaquias Queiroz, Bruno Fratus, and Alison dos Santos have not yet had a major competition after the Olympics.
In the last few months, Brazil has been world champions in artistic gymnastics, with Rebeca Andrade in the pole vault, in skateboarding, with Pâmela Rosa, in surfing, with Gabriel Medina, and in the weight throw, with Darlan Romani.
Besides the champions, Brazil has achieved a series of medals in the World Championships. Marcus Vinicius in archery, Thiago Braz in the pole vault, Keno Marley in boxing, Rayssa Leal and Lucas Rabelo in skateboarding, Filipe Toledo and Tatiana Weston-Webb in surfing, and Laura Amaro in weightlifting won silver, while Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze in sailing, Amanda Schott in weightlifting, and the 4x200m swimming relay (short course pool) won bronze.
We also had significant results in other World Championships, such as in table tennis, with Hugo Calderano (5th place, the best result in the country’s history) and in handball, where the women’s team finished in 8th place (the best result in eight years for the team).
Leaving the World Championships aside, since not all sports had tournaments of this size after the Tokyo Olympics, we saw another World Circuit title for Ana Marcela, a gold in the Diving Jumping Aquatic Festival (highlight for Kawan Pereira), a title for Marlon Zanotelli in the 5-star equestrian tournament in Doha (rising to 6th in the world ranking), a boxing victory for Bárbara Santos over reigning Olympic champion Busenaz Sürmeneli, and a triumph for Lais Nunes over Olympic vice-champion Aisuluu Tynybekova in wrestling. In taekwondo, Caroline Santos won the Riyadh Open, called the women’s World Championships of the sport.
At the weekend, Guilherme Schmidt was the judo Grand Slam champion, beating the ranking leader and leading Brazil’s campaign of five medals. Finally, Luiz Oliveira was gold in the Pan boxing, beating the current world champion in his category up to 57kg and leading Brazil to the top of the medal table of the competition (Abner and Bia, medalists in Tokyo, were also champions).
The women’s tennis deserves a separate paragraph in the text since Beatriz Haddad managed two victories against the top 3 ranked players in singles and reached the final of the Australian Open in doubles, while Luisa Stefani, before getting injured in September (she should start playing again in May) won tournaments and, even away from the circuit, is still 12th in the ranking.
Athletes who are further from the top of the world but have shown evolution since Tokyo have achieved good results. It is the case of João Victor Oliva, who set the best mark in Brazilian history in dressage equestrian, Daniel Nascimento in the marathon, with the second-best mark in the country’s history, and men’s water polo, who beat Canada and qualified for the World Championships in the sport. Bruna Takahashi entered the table tennis top 30 (best in the country’s history). At the World Indoor Championships in athletics, Thiago Moura did 2.31m (South American record) in the high jump and came in fifth place.
Of course, not everything was “flowers” in the last months. Gabriel Medina didn’t even take part in the 2022 Olympics, claiming he needed to take care of his mental health, the volleyball teams (men’s and women’s) saw several athletes retire, women’s basketball didn’t get a place in this year’s World Championship, and BOC is going through a political crisis after the resignation of Jorge Bichara, the director responsible for planning and preparing the delegation for the Tokyo Olympics. Nathalie Moelhousen, current world fencing champion, failed to advance in any World Circuit competition, Ana Satila and Pepê Gonçalves, despite their favoritism, did not reach the podium in the slalom canoeing World Championship in the extreme event, and Lucas Verthein, 12th in rowing at the Olympics, was caught doping. Brazil has had the worst ranking in doubles in men’s tennis in the last 15 years.
The number of medals a country wins in the Olympics reflects how many real podium chances it has in the event. The way things are going, Brazil will have, in Paris 2024, many podium chances. And if this trend materializes, more medal records may come.
With information from G1