Indigenous archer from Amazonas competes for a place to represent Brazil at the Paris Olympic Games

Manaus (AM) – The Paris Olympic Games, the largest sporting tournament in the world and which, every four years, brings together today’s most promising young athletes. Among so many names, one of the most popular is the indigenous Amazonian Graziela Paulina dos Santos, better known as “Yaci”, who recently won a partial place to represent Brazil in Archery combats, during the 2024 Adult Recurve Selective.

Born in the Nova Kuanã community, located on the banks of the Cuieiras River, rural area of ​​Manaus, Graziela is a high-performance athlete from the Karapanã indigenous people.

In 2019, during the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, Graziela also made history as the first indigenous woman to make up the Brazilian team in archery.

Since the last Olympics, she has been tipped to represent Brazil at the Paris Olympic Games, but winning a partial place came last week, during the 2024 Adult Recurve Selective, held in Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, by the Brazilian Shooting Confederation. with Arch (CBTARCO).

The more than 600 points achieved in the qualifiers earned the athlete 3rd place and the opportunity to be part of the Brazilian team that is looking for a place in the Paris Olympics.

Before that, in September, she won the silver medal and the title of runner-up at the 2023 Brazilian Archery Championship, in the women’s individual category. More than 200 athletes from 14 Brazilian states participated in the competition in the city of Maricá (RJ).

In Graziela’s view, the results are the result of her effort and the support she received.

“I was very happy to win the silver medal and the title of Brazilian runner-up in 2023. This was very important, as it had been two years since I had results like this. After the pandemic [de COVID-19], I had a drop in income, made adjustments to my technique and experienced a huge personal loss. I dedicated myself and trained a lot to achieve these results. I am very grateful for all the support I received on this journey. It’s a rewarding feeling that I didn’t give up trying,”

highlights.

Graziela is part of the Indigenous Archery Project, aimed at young people from communities in Amazonas. The initiative is from the Sustainable Amazon Foundation (FAS), with support from the Amazonas High Performance Foundation (FAAR) and the Amazon Archery Federation (Fatarco).

Currently, with the support of FAS and Bemol, she continues to dedicate herself to the CBTARCO Training Center, located in the interior of Rio de Janeiro. According to her, the objective is to conquer space towards France.

“Now I’m still waiting for the official call-up. I’m going to Manaus, at the end of October, to see my family, and then I’ll return to join and train with the Brazilian team. I will be fully focused on being on the team that will compete for the Paris 2024 Olympic spot,”

he said.

For the FAS Indigenous Agenda supervisor, Rosa dos Anjos, the results are the result of collaboration and, mainly, the effort of each athlete.

“We had a good result, I emphasize that it could have been much better if the athletes had support and better training conditions, they have been without a project for almost two years under the Sports Incentive Law, there is no appropriate place to train in the Olympic Village here in Manaus. They achieved these results through their own commitment, they are warriors and resilient. That’s why I say that the result could be better, imagine these curumins and this cunhã with good equipment, a suitable place to train? No one would hold them!”

declared.

*With information from consultancy

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