After 16 years, Fernanda Gentil returns to the Winter Olympics as CazéTV’s greatest asset. The Games will take place from February 6th to 22nd in Milan and Cortina, Italy, and Brazil will have the largest delegation in its history at the tournament, with 14 athletes. In the column, the presenter reflects on the station’s current situation, the choice not to return to Globo, how privilege shielded her from assuming her relationship with Priscila Montandon and appeals to the narrators not to listen to the critics.
“A movie plays in your head,” he says. It was 16 years ago, in Vancouver, Canada, that Gentil made his first major coverage. The call-up still surprises her, since about a year earlier she had left Esporte Interativo and joined Globo. “I want to know who the crazy director was who sent a 22-year-old girl who had just joined to cover the Winter Olympics.”
Gentil was experiencing a “rollercoaster of emotions”, torn between the chance for a big coverage and his parents’ separation. “I remember a lot about boarding [do avião]. I tried to focus only on preparation, but with huge doubts about what I would find when I returned. I knew that I probably wouldn’t even return to the same house — and I didn’t.”
The work was successful, as she would be called by TV Globo for an even more important event on the Brazilian calendar, the World Cup in South Africa. When she received the accreditation email, she ignored the message. “I didn’t understand anything and I thought it was spam. I didn’t even respond.” She only believed in the scale when she was personally called by the manager, close to the end of the deadline.
In Africa, the promising journalist would become a national meme when he tried to greet a blind man during a live broadcast. “People remember [de seu trabalho no evento] a lot because of the blind man, this meme that never dies […] Today it’s funny, but the kindest comment I received at the time was ‘dumb blonde’.” The interviewee was a Frenchman responsible for a project that took blind people to the tournament games.
The presenter says she recognizes a pattern similar to the one she experienced at the beginning of her career in the current attacks on female narrators and commentators. “I really hope that these women, girls, girls are up to date with therapy, so they don’t stop doing what they were born to do,” he says. Gentil says that she has taken care of her mental health since she was little and continues to do so to this day.”
The presence of women in sport is a reality and it has to be increasingly greater. But it has to be equal, my statement here does not mean that men have to leave or lose space. Quite the contrary, we just have to live together harmoniously”, he continues.
CRITIQUES OF CAZÉ TV
The presenter speaks to the column via video, from her hotel room. It splits between the cities of Milan and Bormio to anchor coverage of the Winter Games. In addition to the competitions, he also runs the daily program “Lerigou”, alongside influencers Pedro Scooby and Diogo Defante, shown at the end of each broadcast day.
CazéTV once again chooses to try to create a relaxed and unorthodox environment to the classic sports stands. The formula made CazéTV what it is today, attracting competition from traditional media and, increasingly, criticism.
“Nothing is unanimous, not even Jesus Christ,” says Gentil. “This more natural, more informal way will always open up gaps for criticism. Just as the more formal way also does.” The criterion, he states, is fidelity to the purpose. “The more we act in accordance with our values, the stronger this DNA becomes, which has become an undeniable phenomenon.”
She cites coverage of the Pan American Games in Chile as a turning point. “We made a lot of mistakes,” he says. In a baseball match in the competition, for example, none of the commentators knew the rules of the sport — the subject was even addressed by Casimiro Miguel himself, in one of his lives. “We received blows, but also a lot of constructive criticism. And that was something that made me admire even more the place I’m in. We listened, studied and changed during the broadcast in the middle of the competition.”
Gentil had made sporadic appearances on CazéTV since leaving Globo, in 2023. The decision to seal the relationship with Casimiro Miguel’s project and Livemode until 2028 occurred after a difficult negotiation. Last August, the presenter reached an agreement to return to the Marinho family’s broadcaster. She would be the star of GE TV, Globo’s YouTube-focused sports channel. The salary bases were agreed, but the contract was blocked by the exclusivity clause.
Globo demanded that she terminate her agreements with FIFA, where she produces behind-the-scenes content for competitions, and close her own YouTube channel. Fernanda refused. He opted for the commercial freedom of CazéTV. “I understood that it made more sense for me. Continuing the work I had been doing with CazéTV was more consolidated in my heart than breaking this cycle.”
I also understood that I needed more time with my family, and the personal channel would help as I wouldn’t have to answer to bosses or deadlines. This is wrong, since “today I work much harder than ever, but basically only with what I like and what I want”, says Fernanda.
PERSONAL LIFE
The presenter also approaches her personal life from the perspective of social privilege. In 2016, when he began his relationship with journalist Priscila Montandon, the repercussions were immediate. “I can’t help but recognize the size of my privilege, which I already had at that time. I was a presenter on Esporte Espetacular”, she states. According to her, this worked as a shield. “I’m sure that if I had experienced this at the beginning of my career or anonymously, I would have suffered much more.
She claims to have never considered living in hiding. “I would never live in hiding. I live naturally, the way I understand it to be natural. I don’t need to force anything, whether to show more or less.” For Gentil, making the relationship public was a way to pave the way for others. “It’s a breath of fresh air, a breath of fresh air, a hope that it’s possible to live in a relationship like this.”
Married since 2018, she is the mother of Lucas, 16, and Gabriel, 8. Regarding having more children, as she stated last year, the tone is more cautious. “I’ve had more desires, but then it passes, then it comes back. I still haven’t decided if it’s a desire or if it’s more of a longing”, he explains. The current structure of the house, with the independence of the older children and the organized travel routine, weighs on the decision not to restart the motherhood cycle now.”
Nowadays we are very happy with our structure and the things we have done. I confess that [a possibilidade de ter outro filho] has been more open. It was once again a desire, like this, alive and clearer between us. I don’t know, as time went by our family dynamics became more polished, more rounded, you know? We were enjoying this lifestyle of having older children, without the manual work that babies require.”
At 39 years old, Gentil is already planning the next big event: the 2026 World Cup, in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Until then, he continues in Italy trying to bring the Brazilian public closer to little-known sports, such as curling and bobsled.
com DIEGO ALEJANDRO, KARINA MATIAS and VICTORIA CÓCOLO
