Brazil’s newest sports hero makes unlikely rise from favela to top of podium
Last edited Tue Aug 9, 2016, 01:54 AM - Edit history (2)
Brazil’s newest sports hero makes unlikely rise from favela to top of podium
Stephanie Nolen
RIO DE JANEIRO — The Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Aug. 08, 2016 11:31PM EDT
Last updated Monday, Aug. 08, 2016 11:36PM EDT
Brazil won its first gold at the Rio Olympics on Monday, and it was a medal that came loaded with symbolism.
The prize was won by Rafaela Silva in the under-57-kilogram class of judo. Ms. Silva was a medal favourite. She is also an unlikely story, on an Olympic team that is disproportionately full of white Brazilians (in a country that is 53-per-cent black or mixed-race) and competitors from the middle and upper classes, whose families can afford to invest in sport.
Ms. Silva is Afro-Brazilian, and from the community that is, at least internationally, synonymous with the violence of Rio de Janeiro. She grew up in Cidade de Deus, or City of God, a favela just eight kilometres from the arena where she won her medal Monday evening.
The country rushed to claim her victory. The acting president said she filled Brazilians with joy. We are all Silva! screamed the banner headline of the website of O Globo, the major national news conglomerate.
But Ms. Silva comes from a particular Brazil: Her community was made notorious in the book City of God by Paulo Lins, which became a film by the director Fernando Meirelles (who was lead producer on last week’s opening ceremony). The favela is still poor and violent. Ms. Silva, 24, says she took up judo after she was repeatedly caught up in street fights.
More:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/olympics/brazils-newest-sports-hero-makes-unlikely-rise-from-favela-to-top-of-podium/article31328073/
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Rafaela Silva
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