Rafaela Silva won Brazil’s first gold medal of the 2016 Olympic Games, which was huge in itself, but when you look at where the 24-year-old judo champion came from, her accomplishment stands out even more.
For the first eight years of her life, Silva lived in Cidade de Deus favela, also known as the “City of God,” one of Rio’s poorest neighborhoods.
“We’d pass people selling drugs and trying to recruit kids to be lookouts,” Silva told Sports Illustrated. “My parents didn’t want that for me.”
At five years old, her parents enrolled her in judo classes at a non-profit sports organization called Instituto Reação, where she trained under renowned judo coach, Geraldo Bernardes.
By 16, she had won a junior world title, and at 19, she took silver at the world championships.
Heavily favored in the 2012 Games, Silva fell short after being disqualified for violating a new rule banning competitors from targeting legs. Social media had a field day on her mistake, with one user even saying, “the place of a monkey is in a cage.”
With all of the negative attention, she stopped training and fell into a depression after the Olympics. Sessions with a psychologist helped pull her out of the dark place, and back on the road to Rio.
So, for Silva to pull out the ultimate comeback in her home country — one that had never seen a female win gold in judo — meant more than gold.
“Being in Rio, I had to win,” she told the Associated Press. “All I could hear was the crowd chanting. It helped me a lot. I couldn’t let down the Brazilian people.”
“This is more than just a medal, it’s a victory for poor people. It’s hope for all of them,” one Brazilian fan said after watching her claim the victory from the stands.
