São Paulo
Luiza Marchiori, 30, is the first trans woman to compete professionally in Brazilian skateboarding. Recently debuting in the women’s category, she has been standing out in the regional championships. In the men’s category, in which she competed until last year, she is two-time Brazilian champion and seven-time state champion of Santa Catarina.
The athlete, however, accumulates more than just trophies and medals on her shelf. Luiza is being investigated in at least five investigations for psychological violence, domestic violence, threats, intentional bodily harm and sexual harassment against an underage victim. The athlete’s defense denies all accusations.
Four of the alleged victims are Luiza’s ex-girlfriends, who had a relationship with the skateboarder when she still understood herself as a man. A fifth alleged victim, who was a minor at the time of the events, did not have a romantic relationship with the athlete, but had a sort of sports mentor in her.
The incidents were registered at the Police Station for the Protection of Children, Adolescents, Women and the Elderly of the Civil Police of Florianópolis between June and July this year. The investigations were opened following a request from the Public Ministry of the State of Santa Catarina and are being carried out in secrecy. To date, Luiza has given testimony in only one of these investigations.
Lawyer Larissa Krétzër, who represents the skater, claims that her client is the victim of a plot to intimidate her in sport. “This is a transphobic attack. From the moment Luiza transitioned gender and decided to compete in skateboarding, the attacks began,” he says.
PHYSICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE
One of the alleged victims, whose identity remains confidential, was 14 years old when he met Luiza, then 22, at a skateboarding competition. Then an experienced and well-known athlete in the world, the skateboarder began accompanying the teenager to tournaments, with the permission of her parents. According to the police report, Luiza sexually embarrassed her and coerced her to sleep in the same bed and touch her genitals.
The other four victims were the athlete’s ex-girlfriends between 2011 and 2021, when she still understood herself as a man. In the complaints, there are situations that are repeated. Luiza allegedly forced her companions to dress in men’s clothing, such as underwear, shorts and long t-shirts, in addition to coercing them to cut their hair short and limiting or banning makeup and accessories. These reports were framed by the police authorities as psychological violence against women.
According to the complaints, the athlete displayed jealous, controlling and hostile behavior. “The vast majority experienced physical attacks”, says lawyer Bruna Brigoni, who represents five of the victims. According to the lawyer, more than ten women contacted her after complaints against Luiza were made on TikTok, but only five of them decided to go ahead with recording the incidents.
EXTREME JEALOUSY
In an interview with F5one of the alleged victims, Gabriella Ribeiro, reported one of the occasions in which she was beaten by Luiza (then Luiz Neto). According to her, the athlete was jealous of the attention she gave to her dog and began to tease the pet.
“One day, she got out of control, came up and I saw that she was going to beat my dog. I picked her up and she started kicking and punching the dog and me”, says Gabriella, who dated the skateboarder for four months .
The ex-girlfriend says that, during extreme bouts of jealousy, Luiza would search and confiscate her cell phone, pretend to be her to communicate with friends and relatives, delete photos and block contacts, in addition to constant shouting, swearing, false imprisonment and threats. “From the beginning I wanted to denounce her, but I thought my statement alone wouldn’t have any strength,” he says. Without mentioning Luiza’s name, she exposed some stories on TikTok, which caught the attention of other victims.
One of them is Agnes Melo, a streamer with more than 7 million followers, who dated Luiza in 2022. Mother of a three-year-old child, Agnes left São Paulo and went to live in Florianópolis with Luiza and her daughter. According to the BO, the child would also have been a victim of screams, sleep deprivation and psychological torture at the hands of the skateboarder.
OTHER SIDE
According to the athlete’s lawyer, her client has already been called to testify in one of the investigations and denied the allegations. She also says that the skateboarder is shaken and has panic syndrome: “She can’t leave the house, she is afraid of people, she has been receiving threats on the internet and has been verbally attacked on the street.” The lawyer also says that she will file a police report for transphobia against the complainants.
Luiza Marchiori was contacted for the report, but did not respond. On her social media, however, she made several posts defending herself. In one of them, he says that he is being the victim of “false reports and combined attacks”. “Recently we have had many cases of false accusations, such as the case of Mariana Ferrer,” he wrote.
Bruna Brigoni, the victims’ lawyer, says that Luiza’s gender identity has no relation to the allegations. “We never tarnish Luiza’s image, we never disrespect her as a trans woman. We always act with great responsibility in relation to a subject that is already delicate. It’s not a question of gender, it’s a question of character”, says the lawyer.
