Brazil to send 11 to Beijing Winter Olympics

Brazil’s Olympic Committee (COB) on Twitter Monday (Jan. 17) unveiled the eleven members of the delegation representing the country in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, to take place from February 4 through 20. The group includes first-timers and veterans and will aim for the first medal in a Winter edition. The Brazilian athletes are scattered through five modalities: cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Alpine skiing, skeleton, and bobsled.

The Brazilian delegation boasts experienced, names like Jaqueline Mourão. The 46-year-old from Minas Gerais state is taking part in the Olympic Games for the eighth time, six of which winter editions, two summer (mountain biking in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008). She is one of the three personages in cross-country skiing, along with Bruna Moura and Manex Silva. Mourão, as Moura is widely known, is the Brazilian athlete with the highest number of appearances in Olympic Games.

The Brazilian athletes are scattered through five modalities: cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing, Alpine skiing, skeleton, and bobsled - Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro

Another one returning to Beijing after fourteen years—in another climate—is Jefferson Sabino. In 2008, he represented Brazil in triple jump. Now he is among the five members of Brazil’s bobsled team, alongside Erick Vianna, Edson Martins, Rafael Souza, and Edson Bindilatti—who is having his fifth Winter Olympics of his career. He declared this will be his last one.

Other names appointed include Nicole Silveira, skeleton; Machel Macedo, Apine skiing; and Sabrina Cass, freestyle skiing. Cass, 19, was born and raised in the US, where she lives, but she does not have a Brazilian mother. She competed for the US for a long time—she went as far as becoming a young champion in 2019—but started representing Brazil late in 2021.

According to COB’s schedule, members of the operational team should start flying to China on January 20 to make the preparations at the two Olympic villas receiving the country’s athletes, in Yanqin (where bobsled, Alpine skiing, and skeleton are to be held) and Zhangjiakou (cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing). The third villa, in Beijing, should not receive any Brazilian contestant. The first Brazilian athletes are expected to arrive on January 27, with the full delegation present on January 29.

Brazil participated in the eight last editions of the Winter Games, starting in 1992, but never reached the podium. The largest delegation Brazil has ever sent to the competition was in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. It totaled 13 participants.