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Born at the “end of the world”, 16-year-old looks out for the Winter Olympics
From the extreme south of the planet, Augustinho Teixeira is looking
Published on 16/12/2021 - 07:00 By Lincoln Chaves - Repórter da TV Brasil e Rádio Nacional - São Paulo
One of the candidates to represent Brazil in next year's Winter Olympics, which starts in 50 days, in Beijing (China), comes from the “end of the world”. It's not an exaggeration. Augustinho Teixeira is from Ushuaia, the southernmost point on the planet, in Argentina. The 16-year-old, with an Argentine father and a Brazilian mother, is fighting to be among the top 25 in the world of snowboarding in the halfpipe modality, where athletes perform maneuvers on a U-shaped track.
Reaching at least a top-30 in the competitions valid for the Olympic ranking is one of the eligibility criteria for places in Beijing. In 2021, Augustinho arrived there twice. In March, it took 24th place at the World Snowboard Championships in Aspen (United States). Last Saturday (11), it reached the 30th position in the opening stage of the World Cup this season, in Cooper Mountain (also USA).
The other is to have a minimum of 50 FIS points (International Ski Federation, in French) in the average of the entity's events. With the result in Cooper Mountain, Augustinho currently has an average of 49.26 FIS points, close to the index.
The ranking closes on January 16th. Until then, he has two more competitions: the stages of Mammoth (USA) and Laax (Switzerland) of the World Cup, on the 8th and 15th of next month, respectively.
“We are more than 60 athletes in the ranking and only 25 are going to the Olympics. They count the result of the 2021 World Cup and the top five World Cup results from July 2019 to January 2022. But I was not old enough to participate in the World Cup in 2019 and 2020, because of the covid- 19, the competitions in which I was registered were cancelled, in addition to travel restrictions, which made it impossible to leave one country for another”, explained Augustinho to the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB).
“Unfortunately, this year, there are only three stages of the World Cups, normally there are five to seven a year. I'm preparing myself with great determination, focus and strength to get to these two events in the best possible way and guarantee the results I need”, he added.
Augustinho was enchanted early on by the sport on boards. Before turning three, he learned to surf and sandboard (a kind of sand skiing) in the Brazilian summer. The contact with snow skiing came back home after the holidays. At the age of five, snowboarding finally appeared, but to venture out, it was necessary to convince his mother, who is also a snowboarder.
“I got a board, but my mom wouldn't let me snowboard. So, I practiced the maneuvers on the mattress of my bed [laughs]. One day, I took my board, ran away from the ski class and went with a friend bigger than me to snowboard. My mother was very angry!”, he recalled.
“Since she saw that there was no way out, she talked to Diego Linares [coach] for me to take the last two days of snowboard lessons of the season. She thought that since I didn't have technique, the other boys would be ahead of me, I would get sick and stop asking to snow. But on the first day of class with Diego he told her: 'you can retire his skis because this boy was born to snowboard'. And I got that ear and ear smile on my face!”, amended the snowboarder.
Despite being born in Argentina, Augustinho never had any doubts about the flag he would defend. The young man, who currently lives in Canada, has been accompanied by the Brazilian Confederation of Snow Sports (CBDN) since he was four years old, when he stands out in the giant slalom (ski competition where athletes dodge obstacles). According to him, the support from the entity, the technical team and the family have been fundamental in the search for an unprecedented Olympic spot, the main goal of his career in the short term.
“After that, all that comes is profit”, he concluded.
towards beijing
Brazil already has four guaranteed places in Beijing. Three are in cross country skiing, two in women's, disputed mainly by Bruna Moura, Eduarda Ribera, Mirlene Picin and Jaqueline Mourão (who can reach the eighth Olympiad of her career and the fifth participation in the Winter Games). In men's, Manex Silva and Steve Hiestand compete for the post of representative of the country. The other guaranteed place is in alpine skiing, where Michel Macedo - who was in the last edition, in Pyeongchang (South Korea) - is the main candidate.
Besides the halfpipe snowboard, with Augustinho, there are other sports with Brazilians still fighting for classifications. On ice, the country's presence in skeleton (with Nicole Silveira) and in the male bobsled four-person sled disputes is well underway, with the possibility of places in the competitions for sleds of one (monobob, with Marina Tuono) and two people. In the snow, the fight is Noah Bethonico (snowboard cross), Sabrina Cass (freestyle skiing) and brothers Sebastian and Dominic Bowler (halfpipe skiing).
Text translated using artificial intelligence.
Edition: Fábio Lisboa