"It's a new beginning": Rafaela Silva shines in the selection and guarantees a place in the Judo Pan

Flamengo judoka and Olympic champion Rafaela Silva secured, this Thursday (10), her place in the Brazilian team that will compete in the 2025 Pan-American and Oceania Judo Championship. The selection was held in São Paulo and brought together the country's main names in the sport.

Competing in the under-63kg category, Rafaela performed exceptionally well, winning her matches with authority, even defeating Olympic medalist Ketleyn Quadros. With this result, she will represent Brazil in the continental tournament, which will be held from April 25th to 27th in Santiago, Chile—a competition that will contribute important points to the world rankings and the Olympic race to Los Angeles 2028.

After qualifying, Rafaela celebrated the moment and spoke about the meaning of this achievement:

"It's certainly very gratifying to achieve everything I've achieved with judo. But from a very young age, my old coach always said: if I win today, tomorrow is the end of the world. So that title is in the past; my past titles don't define my future. I made the choice to start all over again. I knew it would be a huge challenge, and I could tell from the tryouts, with a very high level. The kids here at Sesi asking me for photos—that's what motivates me: knowing that children continue to be inspired by my story."

Other Flamengo representatives also participated. In the women's under-70kg category, Dani Karla fought a very close fight against Luana Carvalho. After six minutes of golden score, the Flamengo player was defeated in the tiebreaker, ending her performance with great determination. In the men's category, Marcelo Gomes won the first fight against Guilherme Morais of Sesi, but was defeated in the following two matches by Giovani Ferreira, who took the spot.