The first judoka in Brazil to be an Olympic champion, Sarah Menezes is about to start a new phase of her career in the sport.
On Monday (24), the woman from Piauí embarked on a series of competitions that will mark her debut as coach of the Brazilian women’s judo team. The first will be the Grand Prix de Portugal, from Friday (28) to Sunday (30). Following, the traditional Grand Slam in Paris, on February 5th and 6th.
The trip will make Sarah, 31, go through another unprecedented experience: staying for a few weeks away from her daughter, Nina, born in May last year and who was taken care of by her grandparents in Teresina.
The last few years have been eventful in the life of the gold medalist at the London 2012 Games. First, the athlete, who was going through a difficult Olympic cycle in search of a spot in Tokyo, saw the pandemic postpone the event to 2021.
In November 2020, another surprise: she and her fiancé, French judoka Loic Pietri, announced that Nina was on her way. Sarah retired from the mats and acted in the Olympics as a commentator.
At the end of 2021, came the invitation to take charge of the women’s team. She was already thinking about becoming a coach after ending her athlete career, but she didn’t expect it to happen so quickly. And soon to command the country’s elite in international competitions.
Until then, the couple had planned to live together in France, because Pietri is still fighting and will seek a place in the Paris-2024 Games, but this was another plan that had to be changed.
“[O mais difícil será] stay away from my daughter. Mom is the first time I’m being. As a technician, even though it’s also the first time, I’ll be in an environment that I already master”, Sarah tells leaf about the challenges that lie ahead in the coming days.
She attributes to her calm personality that she reacted well to so many news and believes that this same characteristic can be an asset in her new job.
“I’m a very calm person and I think I’m going to be a very tactical technique. I’ve always helped the girls in field training, they would ask me for tips for the fight vision I had. I just made this transition, I know several athletes, so the path became easier”, he says.
Still waiting for the first competition to know how she will behave on the edge of the mat during the fights, Sarah remembers when she acted as a coach in the judo reality show Ippon, shown by TV Globo in 2017.
For her, however, the most important thing will be the still fresh baggage of the athlete’s trajectory. “Like college, practice is the most important thing there is. I’ve had 17 years of practice and I trust this club.”
The confidence can be welcome at a time when Brazilian judo is trying to renew itself and has a short Olympic cycle ahead of it until the Paris Games. Despite the two bronze medals obtained in Tokyo, with Mayra Aguiar and Daniel Cargnin, the sport had its weakest performance since Athens-2004.
In December, the CBJ (Brazilian Judo Confederation) announced a reformulation of the technical command of the national teams. Mario Tsutsui, Rosicleia Campos and Luiz Shinohara left their positions after a job that included five Olympics and resulted in 14 medals won.
In addition to Sarah, who replaced Tsutsui, Andréa Berti moved from the junior team to the position of technical coordinator of the main female team, previously occupied by Rosicleia.
Antônio Carlos de Oliveira Pereira, aka Kiko, who commanded the Olympic medalists Mayra Aguiar, Tiago Camilo, Felipe Kitadai and Daniel Cargnin at the Sogipa club, took over as coach of the men’s team. Japan’s Yuko Fujii went from head coach to technical coordinator in place of Shinohara.
Sarah analyzes that there is no time to waste and that the work needs to be objective to produce results in two and a half years. Also in December, the selections were held that formed the Brazilian teams for the Paris-2024 cycle.
In the women’s team, there will be eight rookies who will join, among others, the experienced Rafaela Silva, 29, Mayra Aguiar, 30, Ketleyn Quadros, 34, and Maria Suelen Altheman, 33. There are good expectations for the performance of Beatriz Souza, 23. She he was already among the main names in Brazil in the last Olympic cycle, but lost the heavyweight spot in Tokyo to Maria Suelen.
Not long ago, Sarah lived with these judokas as a teammate and was a rival to athletes in the light and medium-light categories. Now, relationships have changed, and they will all be her teammates, but the new coach intends to remain present alongside them on the mat.
“I asked my boss if I could make randori [luta de treinamento] with the girls. Most athletes who have retired continue to take the kimono, it is important to show some things. I think about staying active and fighting with them, because there’s a very young generation,” she says.
The commander recognizes, however, that it will not be simple to change this key. “What will be a little delicate is for them to understand that today I am a coach, I am no longer their partner, their friend. They will have to have respect, know when to talk and do things seriously. The beginning will be complicated, but I think it will work.”
Portuguese GP opens the 2022 judo season
The Grand Prix de Almada, in Portugal, opens the World Tour in 2022 and distributes the first points of the year in the world ranking.
Brazil has 15 athletes registered so far, with emphasis on the medalist in Tokyo Daniel Cargnin, who moved from the 66 kg category to the 73 kg category, and Rafaela Silva, who is trying to climb the 57 kg ranking after two years of doping suspension.
The competition will mark the debut of the new coaches, Kiko Pereira and Sarah Menezes, and will be broadcast on the international federation’s website.
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