After the successful participation of the Brazilian team at the FEI World Equestrian Games 2018 in Tryon some of the members of the Vaulting Team Brazil quit and so the team had to start all over. Now they have found together as a new team and have great goals for this season! Read more about their journey in this article.

The last time we have spoken to the Brazilian team was when they were preparing for the FEI World Equestrian Games 2018. It was already clear that it was the last big competition for this Brazilian team together. Former team member Nico Martinez said back then:

“[…] My focus is on helping the team, since this is my farewell year for Vaulting and I will be ending my career as an vaulting athlete. So I want to go and represent well my country, my family, my Brazilian friends and the European friends I’ve made during these almost 23 years of Vaulting. I have conquered many things, met many people, trained with the best, visited places that I never imagined to visit …vaulted on the best horses, and all this thanks to a sport that brings together all the people that are involved, forming the great Vaulting Family. And I just have to thanks for this wonderful sport for giving me the best moments of my life until today.”

Now a new generation has taken over and is eager to make vaulting more popular in Brazil and to represent their country at international competitions. Luana, member of the Brazilian senior team, answered some questions for you:

So, who forms part of the new Brazilian national team?

Our team was created after Tryon in 2018, when some of the members from the brazilian team who went on the tournament stopped vaulting and other vaulters joined the brazilian team and we started training together! Our senior team members are:

Manuela Chade
Manuela Delgado
Luana Ranali
Clara Zerwes
Giovanna Ghidetti 
Giovanna Ricardo
Manuela Garcia
Eduarda Azevedo
Ana Beatriz

Junior team:

Carolina Plihal
Sophie Marie
Hélène Olander
Eduardo Crivelli
Flávia Rocha

Izac Araújo is our coach, Sabrina Moreira is our physical trainer and we also have Agnes Werhahn as an international support.

What does your training look like?

We train in Sociedade Hípica Paulista, an equestrian center in São Paulo that also has other equestrian sports. We train together at Hipica Paulista 3 times a week, in total 8 hours, but we also have physical preparation via Zoom and most of us also train individually!! Our senior team has a horse of our own, her name is Camani and she used to be a show jumper, but it didn’t work so well, so we got the chance to meet her to see if she would be able to be trained for vaulting, which she had never done before, but our coach did some really good work with her!! 

How did the Corona pandemic affect you in your training and goals?

At the beginning, the Corona pandemic was a total shock for us since we were quarantined for a few months and couldn’t  attend our club. We had to reorganize our plans so that the pandemic wouldn’t affect our training so much. We exchanged our normal training schedule to physical preparation via Zoom. When Brazil finally ended the quarantine and we got back, the covid cases increased a lot and we got under quarantine again. The pandemic also made it impossible for us to go to the Vaulting World Championships in 2020. Fortunately we were able to resume our normal training schedule after this period of uncertainty!

How is vaulting developing in Brazil?

In Brazil we have only 6 vaulting clubs, which makes the sport not very popular and hard to be recognized. Despite the difficulties, we try to have partnerships that will provide us visibility, as well as making presentations as the Brazilian vaulting team in other events related to horses.

What are your plans for this season?

This year we would like to make more clinics with vaulters and coaches (like we did last month with Nico Andréani)! Some of the girls from our team are also going to the Vaulting World Championships this year! We also hope to make vaulting more popular in Brazil and to bring more people to this beautiful sport, and to our team as well. We also have girls from another state that come once a month to train with us. We stay in touch with Agnes Werhahn frequently, we update her about our training, freestyle and compulsories. It’s been a while since she came to Brazil due to the pandemic, but we have video calls with her, so she can see our training, give tips and new ideas!!!

Thank you Team Brazil for the insights, we hope to see you soon at some competitions!