10 Brazilian athletes who made history in their sports

Although Brazil has a real passion for football and usually doesn’t pay much attention to other sports, from time to time idols appear outside the lawns that make history and conquer the hearts of Brazilians.

And when those idols are women, our admiration is usually even greater.

O Incredible.club brings you some inspiring stories from Brazilian athletes who were (and, in some cases, still are) very successful in their sports.

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Considered the biggest name in Brazilian tennis among men and women, Maria Esther Bueno was elected in 2012 the best athlete of the modality in the 20th century in Latin America, occupies the 38th position in the pantheon of the greatest tennis players of all time, collected 589 international titles in 20 years of career. In all, she won nineteen Grand Slam tournaments, seven in the singles category, eleven in women’s doubles and one in mixed doubles, reaching the 1st place in the International Tennis Federation’s ranking in 1959 and 1964. died in June of this year.

Marta has already been chosen the best footballer in the world for six times, five consecutive, a record among athletes of the modality. She was considered, in 2009, by Época Magazine, one of the 100 most influential Brazilians of the year. In 2015, she became the Greatest Scorer in the History of all the Women’s World Cups by reaching the 15 goals mark, and also became the Greatest Scorer in the History of the Brazilian National Team, surpassing Pelé, with 101 goals. She is considered the greatest female footballer of all time.

A list of the best Brazilian sportswomen could not be left out. The Queen Hortência, now retired, is a sought-after motivational speaker and sports consultant. Considered one of the greatest female athletes of the modality, since 2005 she is inducted into the International Basketball Hall of Fame, alongside hallowed monsters of the sport like Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. She is the highest scorer in the history of the Brazilian Basketball Team, with 3,160 points scored in 127 official matches, an average of 24.9 points per match. He has already competed in five world championships and two Olympics.

Magic Paula was, alongside Hortência, the great name in the history of Brazilian women’s basketball. If, in the local championships, the two were great rivals, in the Brazilian team, the pair filled the fans with pride. The term ‘magic’ was a reference to the American player Magic Johnson. She is considered one of the best players of all time. She was a silver medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The swimmer Maria Lenk (1915 — 2007), pictured above received by President Getúlio Vargas in 1932, was the first South American woman to compete in the Olympic Games. At a time of financial difficulty in the world, caused by the Great Depression, the Federal Government, for not being able to help with resources for the participation of athletes, lent the ship Itaquicê and donated many bags of coffee, devalued at the time, to be able to pay for the trip. The 68 athletes who made up the delegation sold coffee at the stops along the way until they managed to arrive, late, at the Los Angeles 1932 Olympic Games. Maria, aged 17, needed to borrow a uniform to compete. The swimmer also competed in the Olympic Games in Berlin 1936 and, when preparing for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 1940, broke the world record in the 200m and 400m breaststroke, in 1939, being the only Brazilian to hold these records. Because of World War II, the Tokyo Olympics never took place. In the image below, the arrival of the Brazilian delegation at the port of Los Angeles.

Maurren Maggi is the biggest name in Brazilian women’s athletics. She is, to date, the only gold medalist in the country in individual sports, a feat conquered by winning the long jump dispute at the Beijing Olympic Games, in 2008, with 7.04 meters. Maurren was also the first Olympic gold medalist in track and field since Joaquim Cruz in Los Angeles 1984.

Fabiana Murer is world champion, Pan-American, Brazilian and South American record holder in pole vaulting. She is also a two-time world champion, in 2010 indoors and in 2011 outdoors. Before migrating to athletics, Fabiana practiced artistic gymnastics. She had to give up the sport at the age of 16, after nine years of activity, as her height prevented her from exercising the uneven bars without touching her feet on the ground.

Great champions of women’s beach volleyball at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, Jaqueline Silva and Sandra Pires formed an almost unbeatable duo. Jaqueline already had a career in indoor volleyball, with two Olympics with the Brazilian team, Moscow 1980 and Los Angeles 1984, having been elected the best setter at the Los Angeles Games. By the end of the 1980s, however, she had taken a turn in her career, taking up beach volleyball, a sport that was on the rise. Sandra had been playing beach volleyball since she was seventeen, in the early 90s.

Athletics competitor, Aída dos Santos became the first Brazilian woman to compete in an Olympic final, placing fourth in the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games. Without structure or even material, she did not have a uniform to participate in the opening ceremony, adapting a costume from another competition. Mother of former volleyball player Waleska, today Aída is dedicated to a project of social inclusion through sport, in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

And you, do you know any incredible stories about athletes that were not mentioned in the article?

Share with us in the comments.