Rafaela Silva wins twice to put Brazil on the Olympics podium at the 2024 Paris Games…
The 32-year-old Brazilian judoka, the first Brazilian woman to become a world champion in judo, won the decisive match to lead Brazil to victory against Italy (4-3) on Saturday to secure the bronze medal in the mixed team judo competition.
It’s the eighth medal that the South American country has won at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Silva defeated Veronica Toniolo in the 57KG category, giving the victory to the ‘verde-amarela’ team by.
In the process, Silva became the oldest Olympic judoka to win a medal. She also has two bronze medals from the 2012 London Games and 2016 Rio Games.
Brazil quickly took a 2-0 lead, with matches won by Rafael Macedo against Christian Parlati in the -90 and Beatriz Souza against Asya Tavano.
Italy cut the lead with a waza-ari by Gennaro Pirelli against Leonardo Goncalves in the +90. Silva, in the -57, increased the lead to 3-1 by defeating Veronica Toniolo.
On the brink of elimination, the Europeans tied the duel at three, thanks to the victory of Manuel Lombardo against Willian Lima (-73) and Savita Russo against Ketleyn Quadros.
With a 3-3 tie, the draw to decide which category would dispute the last match established that it would be in the -57 category, Silva against Toniolo.
The Italian, who was injured from her previous match, conceded in just 14 seconds by a waza-ari.
