Juliana Vieira Sets Example for Brazil

Jayce September 6, 2024 3 0

20-year-old Juliana Viana Vieira has become the first Brazilian woman to win a match in Olympic singles.

Vieira also performed well in her opening match, and although she ultimately lost to Supanida Katethong, she displayed greater confidence in her match on Monday, winning in straight sets 21-19, 21-14 against Lo Sin Yan Happy of Hong Kong, China.

Brazil has had two previous women’s singles representatives in the Olympics—Lohaynny Vicente at the 2016 Rio Olympics and Fabiana Silva at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Vieira, who was a ballet dancer as a child before falling in love with badminton, expressed great happiness at her breakthrough achievement.

Vieira Celebrates a Point

“I’m super happy, winning my first match at the Olympics is amazing,” Vieira said. “This has been a wonderful experience for me. I’m very satisfied with my performance. Of course, I was nervous playing against Thailand in my first match, but I managed. In this match, I was confident I could make history as the first Brazilian woman to win a match at the Olympics, so that’s great. I’m really excited now.”

Ironically, Vieira missed the chance to watch the Olympics at home eight years ago because she was training in Spain. After four years of training in Spain, she returned to Brazil and joined the national team.

“I improved a lot while I was in Spain, but by the time I was 16, I had reached my limit, so I returned to Brazil,” Vieira said.

After arriving in Paris, she was fortunate to be invited to train for four days with Carolina Marin at the national center INSEP. “It was tough, but I was happy and had fun,” Vieira said.

Why does she prefer badminton over ballet?

“I fell in love with badminton the moment I started playing. That’s my inspiration. Badminton isn’t strong in Brazil because we are a big country and the popular sports are football and volleyball, but badminton is growing.”

Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles Group of Death (Group D), Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen regained their momentum with a 21-15, 21-13 victory over Liu Yuchen/Ou Xuanyi, after losing to Olympic champions Lee Yang/Wang Chi-lin on Sunday.

One of the closely contested matches in this tournament was between world champions Seo Seung-jae/Chae Yu-jung and Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai, vying for the top spot in Group B. The Korean pair won this high-paced, exciting match 21-16, 10-21, 21-15 against the Thai pair.