{"id":67085,"date":"2021-08-24T10:36:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=67085"},"modified":"2021-09-15T08:45:50","modified_gmt":"2021-09-15T11:45:50","slug":"the-victorious-black-presence-of-brazilian-athletes-at-the-tokyo-olympics-voicesfromsocialmedia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=67085","title":{"rendered":"The Victorious Presence of Black Brazilian Athletes at the Tokyo Olympics #VoicesFromSocialMedia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This article is part of RioOnWatch\u2019s\u00a0#VoicesFromSocialMedia<\/a>\u00a0seri<\/em>es, which compiles perspectives posted on social media by favela residents and activists about eve<\/em>nts and societal themes that arise. It is also the latest contribution to our year-long reporting project, \u201c<\/i>Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas<\/i><\/a>: Deconstructing Social Narratives About Racism in Rio de Janeiro.\u201d Follow our\u00a0<\/i>Rooting Anti-Racism in the Favelas series here<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/em><\/p>\n

When the name of a black athlete from Brazil enters the history books of the Olympic Games<\/a>, it is an achievement that was built by overcoming many hurdles<\/a>, by surmounting the many obstacles that lie along the way.<\/p>\n

1964 was the first time that Tokyo<\/a>, Japan<\/a>, hosted the Olympic Games<\/a>. At that time, the Brazilian delegation had 68 athletes. A\u00edda dos Santos<\/a>, then 27, was the only woman in the group. A black woman, A\u00edda never received the appropriate support. At home, she was discredited by her parents who asked if track and field put food on the table.<\/p>\n

On the track, the trainer gave her some support. But the managers treated her differently. She arrived in Japan without adequate clothing, without technical support, without an interpreter and without her name being registered for the events. She had to depend on the support of athletes from Cuba and Peru just to get hold of sneakers to compete. When she needed a doctor, it was the empathy of the Cuban athletes that resolved the issue. And yet, dos Santos jumped over the entire racist structure and came fourth<\/a> in the high jump, the best result for a Brazilian woman until the 1996 Olympics, in Atlanta<\/a>, in the US<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The athlete who made history in Tokyo, as Brazil was entering the bleak years of the military dictatorship<\/a>, reveals much more than the legacy of an Olympic record. Dos Santos lays bare the neglect, fruit of racism, of those who direct investments into the various Olympic disciplines practiced in Brazil. In a recent interview given to news portal UOL<\/em><\/a>, dos Santos said, \u201cAthletics is still the poor cousin among our national sports, so imagine what it was like back then. Me, a woman, poor, and black.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, dos Santos’ story still echoes in the lives of the black women and men who decide to follow this path. But the capacity for resistance and resilience makes this daily struggle not always end predictably.<\/p>\n

\"Victorious<\/a><\/p>\n

Almost 60 years separate A\u00edda dos Santos from Rebeca Andrade. But the lack of resources, the thought of giving up, and the exclusion felt by Brazil’s peripheral population remain the same. This time, however, the favela reached the highest spot on the podium. In the same country that acclaimed dos Santos, Andrade wrote another chapter of history being the first Afro-Brazilian woman to win a medal in an Olympic individual gymnastics category.<\/p>\n

\"Victorious<\/a><\/p>\n

Every time we witness the achievement of a black person, we can be sure that this result is the sum of collective efforts and many confrontations with a racist system. Andrade was born and raised in the periphery of Guarulhos, in S\u00e3o Paulo<\/a>. From a young age she saw her mother, a domestic worker, give her all to provide for eight children in a house with one room. She often lacked money to pay for the bus ride to get to practice. And all of this before she turned ten.<\/p>\n

To give more weight to this achievement, the presentation that earned her the silver medal took oft-criminalized<\/a> Brazilian funk<\/a> music, with the track Baile de Favela<\/a> (Favela Party) by MC Jo\u00e3o<\/a>, into a sporting category marked by white dominance. Andrade’s gold medal came during the vault event. The MC thanked her on his Instagram page<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Uma publica\u00e7\u00e3o compartilhada por MC Joa\u0303o (@mcjoaooriginal)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n