The Brazilian Judo Has Traveled to Twenty-Six Countries This Year

Last week, the Brazilian Rafael Macedo won the world judo junior title in Fort Lauderdale, USA. A month earlier, another Brazilian athlete, Mayra Aguiar, won the world senior title in the World Judo Championship of Chelyabinsk, Russia. Two weeks ago, Brazilian teams competed in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. From January to December, the Brazilian teams have been traveling to 26 countries.

This large number of trips has two reasons. The first one is the plan of the International Judo Federation to extend this sport awareness. Since the current president, the Romanian Marius Vizer, took over the organization, which is in 2007, he created the world circuit judo. There are currently over 40 events on the five continents.

Brazil wishes to be in almost all of them. BJC’s strategy is to have its athletes travel a lot. The country has several athletes in each weight category and uses different planning schemes for each. Participating and especially scoring in major competitions is part of the qualification process for the Olympics. The vacancies are decided by the world ranking, including the keys during the Olympics.

"We make individual plans for each athlete. The younger athletes travel more in order to gain experience. The most veterans travel less.” explains the BJC’s coordinator, Ney Wilson.

These training programs realized with considerable funds BJC counts on thanks to the sponsors (Sadia, Petrobras, Bradesco, Infraero, Scania, Cielo and Mizuno) and Piva and Sports Incentive Laws show why we have so many good results abroad. In the medals charts kept by IJF, Brazil ranks second in the season, with 39 gold awards. Only Japan overcomes Brazil, with 55 gold medals. According to the total number of medals, the country ranks first, with 127 victories (39 gold, 26 silver and 62 bronze medals), next to France (35, 32 and 60) - the Japanese athletes have reached 118 podiums this season. Rafael Silva, bronze medalist at the last World Championship and world ranking leader in his category, approves the strategy and the number of travels.

"I like to be always competing. It helps keep the pace and meet our rivals," says the 2.03 m and 150 kg- giant. "The problems are the travel. I am a little big for those plane seats," he jokes.