Brazil ended the Paralympic Winter Games this Sunday (15) with a historic campaign. The country entered the medal table for the first time, in 22nd place, with a silver won by Cristian Ribera in cross-country skiing.
The feat, added to Lucas Pinheiro Braathen’s gold at the Winter Olympic Games, which ended in February, completes an unprecedented cycle: the country now has medals in all formats of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, considering the Summer and Winter editions.
Ribera, born in Cerejeiras, in Rondônia, and raised in Jundiaí, in the interior of São Paulo, arrived at the Milan-Cortina Games as one of the competition’s favorites. Paralympic cross-country skiing World Cup champion, the 23-year-old athlete confirmed his favoritism at the opening of the snow events.
On March 10, in Val di Fiemme, he led the qualifiers and much of the final of the sitting sprint and was only overtaken in the final meters by the Chinese Liu Zixu. The silver medal was celebrated with emotion by the Brazilian, already in his third Paralympic participation.
This Sunday (15), Ribera participated in the last race with Brazilian participation. He finished fifth in the 20 km cross-country ski race. Aline Rocha, from Paraná, arrived in the same position, in the women’s category — a result that crowned a high-level week for the athlete from Pinhão, Paraná.
Aline Rocha was one of the protagonists of the Brazilian delegation throughout the competition. On the first day of the competition, on March 7, she reached seventh place in the 7.5 km sprint biathlon, the best result in Brazilian history in the sport.
In the cross-country events, he maintained a remarkable sequence: fifth place in the sprint, fifth in the 10 km and seventh in the mixed relay. With this, she broke her own record for the best placement by a Brazilian at the Paralympic Winter Games. The previous mark was also hers, a seventh place achieved in Beijing 2022.
In addition to Ribera and Aline, Brazil had six other athletes in action on Italian soil, making up the largest delegation in the country’s history in an edition of the Paralympic Winter Games.
In cross-country skiing and biathlon, Guilherme Rocha, Wellington da Silva and Elena Sena from São Paulo and Robelson Lula from Paraíba also competed. In snowboarding, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Gauchos André Barbieri and Vitória Machado represented the country.
Ribera, Aline, Silva and Elena are part of Team São Paulo, a partnership between the Brazilian Paralympic Committee and the São Paulo State Secretariat for the Rights of People with Disabilities, which benefits 157 athletes across the country.
The next Paralympic Winter Games are scheduled for the French Alps, from March 1 to 10, 2030.
Brazilian medals at the Olympic Games
Winter Olympics
1 gold
Winter Paralympics
1 talk
Summer Olympics
40 gold
49 silver
81 bronze
Summer Paralympics
134 gold
158 silver
170 bronze
