Judoka Silva bags Brazil’s first Rio 2016 gold

Silva poses with her gold medal after beating the Mongolian world number one in front of her home crowd at the Carioca Arena 2 (Getty Images/David Ramos) Rio-de-Janeiro native Rafaela Silva, 24, has won the host nation’s first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Games today (8 August) beating Mongolia’s Sumiya Dorjsuren in the women’s judo 57kg final.
Silva scored waza-ari over Dorjsuren with a throw a little over a minute into the final and was able to hold on to that lead amid deafening cheering from the stands.
The Brazilian judoka was disqualified in the early rounds at London 2012, though bounced back to take gold at the world championships in 2013.

Like that victory, this one was in front of a home crowd. Born in the notorious City of God community in Rio de Janeiro, Rafaela had the strong support of the fans in the Carioca Arena 2, and especially from her family who were there to support her.

“It really helped me with momentum and the pressure against my opponents. The stadium was shaking, everybody was screaming and cheering me up every minute.”
“I want to thank everyone who cheered for me. The people who saw my suffering daily know I did not like to train. But I think no one has trained more than me in this Olympic cycle,” said the champion to Globo afterwards.
“I’m very happy about the result. I’ve been training a lot these last few years and the results are showing.”
Rafaela’s father, Luiz Carlos, declined to attend his daughter’s preliminary fights, citing nervousness.

But he was there today for the semi-final and the final, sitting next to wife Zenilda and their judoka niece Ana Carolina.
“It’s not because it’s my daughter, but she deserves this a lot. She is a good person, humble,” Silva’s mother said excitedly. “She deserves this. She is a unique warrior. A warrior of gold.”
 Report by rio2016.com