From water to love: the story of the Pan-American sailing champion couple

When Djavan wrote “as soon as the day dawned there on the high sea of ​​passion”, he was probably not talking about sailing – but, somehow, he described the love of Juliana Duque and Rafael Martins, Pan-American sailing champions who, in addition to being a duo in sport, they are a couple in life.

Sailing and the sea have always been close to both of them. When Rafael was one year old, his grandfather already had a boat named after him, where they went out together every weekend. Juliana, in turn, grew up on her parents’ boat, traveling and living near the sea.

Passionate about the water, Rafa tried surfing and diving, until he found his place in sailing. Juliana went swimming and even competed in the sport. From there, he went surfing and fell in love with horse riding, until, at a holiday camp, he discovered diving and rowing and learned to sail. It never stopped.

Each in their own way, the two continued to grow in the sport. Rafa went to the laser, an individual boat for competition. From there, he moved on to the Sniper class, where he is a specialist. It was at that time that he heard about a girl who competed in regattas – sailing races – on the Optimist, for sailors up to 15 years old.

At 16, the prodigy went sailing on the Sniper, and the two met. The adversaries became friends, and began to share their lives with each other.

The two met in the mixed classes of the Baiano, North-Northeast, Brazilian and South American championships. “I would win one, he would win another. We always fought and exchanged a lot. In the Sailing Match Race, which took place here in Bahia, we were competitors and stood on the podium, he came first and I came second”, says Juliana.

Over time, the passion for sailing increased – and so did the passion between the two. Three years later, they started dating and, after another two years, sailing together. Juliana’s sailing partner at the time was an electrical engineer and didn’t have time to train as much as she would have liked. On Rafael’s side, a dentist, also busy. So, the two began training together and found the rest of their lives there.

“When I was a businessman, I saw myself at meetings, dinners, and I knew I didn’t want to be there. Today there is no such thing. On the worst day there is, rainy, cold, we are still doing what we like, what we love. Of course, when it becomes work, all that charm loses a little – but, still, it must be about three years since I don’t wear a jacket in my life, and it’s wonderful”, he says.

Juliana always knew that the sea was her place, but beyond that, competition: “I started sailing because, after all, I like being close to the sea. But I’ve always been very competitive. So, looking back, I always did it professionally.”

Together, the two began to find their dynamic at sea, especially to overcome the challenge of the position each would occupy. This is because, in sailing, there are two positions – helmsman and bowman. The helmsman is at the “steering wheel” of the boat, while the bowman regulates the sails. And they both worked at the helm.

So, in the first year, they decided to start with Ju in the bow, and change each year. This system won the duo’s first South American championship, until the news arrived that the Pan American championship would be mixed. It was then that Rafa sat at the bow, and Juliana was at the helm, where they achieved their greatest success.

The union of love and sport worked and captivated the world. “At the 2016 South American Championship, the first major championship we won, we stood on the podium and spontaneously kissed each other on the lips. They took a photo and it was in the newspaper. After that, when we win a regatta, all the photographers ask for a kiss! It was done spontaneously once and now, it won a regatta, kisses!”

In 2017, he won the Brazilian Championship and the North-Northeast, in addition to second place in the Western Hemisphere and the South American Championship. The following year, a far from easy qualifier for the Pan-American Championships, where Juliana is a three-time women’s champion.

“It is sometimes more difficult to qualify for the Pan American Games itself than to do well in the results, because the funnel in Brazil is so difficult. It was a tense regatta. When we crossed the finish line, a huge storm was coming. If she had arrived ten minutes earlier, the race could have been cancelled. We managed to get back to land in time, but the boats that came after arrived already broken”, recalls Rafa.

At the Pan, the long-awaited bronze medal came. “It was the most important thing, what turned the key from amateur to professional. With the Pan-American bronze medal we got our first sponsorship and were able to make a living from sailing”, they say.

Eleven years of relationship, nine as a sailing duo. A lifetime divided as a couple and teammates. Together, Ju and Rafa have navigated every good and bad side of working with a life partner, and are proof that being in tune outside the water can help inside it.

“I am more emotion, Ju is more reason. We balance each other like that. Having the relationship is very positive because we have this intimacy, this harmony not only in the water, but also outside the water. Often, Ju doesn’t even need to say what she’s going to do, I already know, having sailed together for so long”, says Rafa.

“To put a counterpoint to this, this intimacy makes one cover the other a lot. As we have so much intimacy, we demand more from the other than if they were a less close person. This sometimes causes fights and confusion. But the balance of sailing together is always positive, we always manage to return to land and be fine”, he adds.

The couple’s story is marked everywhere, and even appears on their boat. Since she was a child, Juliana was called Rata because she had “protruding ears”, while Rafael was told that he had a “mouse face”. When they started dating, they became “The Rodents”, a nickname written on the sailboat they share.

Just as love helps at work, Juliana feels that the opposite also happens, with the closeness they experience on a daily basis: “I love this life we ​​have, being 100% together. Sometimes, we separate for two, three hours, he leaves, I leave, we miss each other. When he has to travel, run with other crews, work, it’s a week, and it gives me a feeling of longing that I don’t think I can handle.”

But, if the couple is always close, so is the candle. They even tried to only talk about the sport until a certain time, but the agreed time is always exceeded. When they rest, they watch regatta videos. On vacation, they go sailing with their parents. When going out with friends, almost all of whom are sailors – as Juliana has dedicated herself to sailing her entire life – the subject is the same.

“I don’t even have much experience with other things like that to talk about. I go to another conversation, leave for a little bit, a minute of another conversation, and go back to sailing. We talk about sailing all day, we live sailing all day, but that doesn’t mean we’re tired working all day. Sometimes, it’s pleasurable,” says Ju.

The good side of the intensity and temporal exclusivity that the profession demands is the different routine it provides, especially away from the technology that governs life today.

“Today, cell phones are a problem for many people, excessive screen use. Sometimes we spend six hours at the club, working on the boat, training, and four hours on the water. Next thing you know, you spent the day without a cell phone. Today, I see it as a luxury, especially for children. I think it’s one of the sports that takes the most away from the screen and gets you close to nature”, says Juliana.

The future now points to the pinnacle of every athlete – the Olympics. With Los Angeles-2028 getting closer and closer, the couple begins to dream of an Olympic cycle, and prepare for it.

Between Portugal, Spain and France, their trips are already planned to compete on the entire world circuit, covering every possible chance of classification. “The world championship was what defined the best Brazilian to go to the Olympics. The Confederation did not say whether this cycle will be like this. That’s why it’s important to be constant, because if you say it like that, it will be an average of the four years we’ve been there training”, they comment.

Despite the dedication, the initial challenge is to guarantee Brazil’s presence at the Olympics. “There aren’t many boats in Brazil. Our biggest mission is to classify the country. It’s not one Brazilian against another. It’s about having a good result in the world to get our country’s place, and only after that ‘fight’ among Brazilians, decide who will go”.

But, like every athlete, the dream is to get there, do a medal race – be in the top 10 in the category – and have a lot of stories to tell. “I think the idea of ​​us as a couple going to the Olympics is great, you know? One day we’re going to have a child and we’re going to be able to show the story we made, that idea attracts me”, says Juliana.

The biggest difficulty is the support for sport in Brazil. With almost one million costs a year on sailing, the duo works teaching, representing a sailing company that sells boats, sailing professionally and giving training (the sailing ‘clinics’) at the Yacht Clube da Bahia to complete what the sponsorships and the support they receive from the FazAtleta program they cannot afford.

In technical terms, there is no fixed classic. They have one in Salvador and another in Rio de Janeiro, for international competitions. And everything else is up to them. “I usually say that we are a company, because we are a travel agency – since we have to buy our tickets and make our Airbnb or our hotel -, buy our material, make our food on the trips, hire the coach….” , says Juliana.

But, along with the difficulty of being an athlete in Brazil, comes the joys of being a sailor in Salvador. With the hot temperature, the extensive coastline and the weather fluctuations, the city is a paradise for those who practice the sport.

“Nothing is comparable to our Baía de Todos os Santos. Salvador is very good to train precisely because he is unpredictable. Here we spend, at most, one week (non-consecutive) without training a year. There are places we go where we spend 20 days there and in 15 we couldn’t sail because the storm came in, the wind stopped.”

“Rio de Janeiro also has a lot of boats, currents coming and going, wind fluctuating a lot. Every 50 meters you walk, sometimes it’s flooding and it reverses, so you have to be able to look closely at the water and see the tide. It’s cool and it’s really hard too.”

So the two face unpredictability, one of the biggest obstacles in sailing, which requires luck in addition to skill. With changes in weather, tides or wind, the entire regatta can change, without the outcome being controlled by the athletes’ performance.

It’s even possible for trash to get in the way. When a plastic bag comes from the sea and gets attached to the boat, it can take a sailor who is in first place to last in the race – either by slowing down the sail or by causing the athlete to stop to remove the trash.

“Our sport is dynamic, one day is not the same as another, so we always start from scratch, we have to think each day in a new way. It’s quite physical, but it’s also very mental. At all times you have to have your head working, connected, attentive and with the serenity to make good decisions. This is the charm of our sport”, they say.

Between sport and relationship, Juliana and Rafael write the future of their lives and Brazilian sailing, promising that “rodents” will still appear in many seas out there.