Gabriela Kidd (Photo: Matias Capizzano)
Team Brazil reached the 200-place mark at the Paris-2024 Olympic Games. On Thursday night (2), the Brazilian Sailing Confederation (CBVela) confirmed that it will take all Brazilian boats that qualified for the Olympics. Thus, Brazil will compete in eight events with 12 athletes in the sport that reached the podium in 11 of the last 12 Olympic editions. Now, there are 204 Brazilians classified for Paris-2024.
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Initially, CBVela had only confirmed the classification of athletes who had reached the technical index established by the entity, which required boats to be among the 16 best in a World Championship in this Olympic cycle. Only Martine Grael/Kahena Kunze (49er FX), Bruno Lobo (Fórmula Kite) and Mateus Isaac (IQFoil) had met these criteria and were already confirmed by CBVela.
Now, CBVela confirmed the other boats that achieved the Olympic spot, but still did not have athletes with the established index. This Thursday, the following entered the list: Marco Grael/Gabriel Simões (49er), Gabriella Kidd (ILCA 6), Bruno Fontes (ILCA 7), Henrique Haddad/Isabel Swan (470 mixed) and João Siemsen/Marina Arndt (Nacra 17). The confederation preferred to take all the boats to have a better structure at its disposal in the Olympic lane in Marseille. The country will have five boats to use, as well as containers, a repair workshop and a lounge for meetings, physiotherapy and the installation of the COB medical area.
“Coach” analysis
The head coach of the Brazilian sailing team at the Olympic Games will be none other than Torben Grael, owner of five Olympic medals, including two gold. “There is a mix of experience and youth in this team that I think is healthy. Our expectation is to maintain our tradition of always bringing medals to our country. The classes that we can say we have a little more chance of are 49er FX, Kite and IQFoil”, analyzed the coach.
The sailing competition in Paris-2024 will be in Marseille, in the Mediterranean Sea. Torben said that the conditions are similar to those in Rio de Janeiro, which could help the Brazilians in the competition. “They have some similarities with Rio, as it is a hot, somewhat unstable place, with variable conditions. And I think this is good for our team”, he concluded.
Journalist graduated from the Federal University of Santa Catarina (UFSC) and addicted to sports
