BRAZIL-OLYMPICS: Women Triumphant

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 2 1996 (IPS) - For Brazil, the Atlanta Olympics are something of a feminine phenomenon. Brazilian women have won their first medals in 100 years of competition and, while the men’s vaunted soccer team was bundled out of the semi finals by Nigeria, the women racked up a double triumph in beach volleyball picking up both gold and silver.

Even in soccer – a sport in which they are still completely marginal – the women surprised everyone by also getting to the semi-finals before losing to China by one goal.

Jacqueline Silva and Sandra Pires, the gold medalists in beach volleyball, and Monica Rodrigues and Adriana Samuel, the silver medalists, are the nation’s new heroes and the crowds turned out in the rain earlier this week to welcome them home to Rio.

And the Brazilian heroes vowed to continue their success.

“We want to win another gold medal four years from now” – at the next Olympics in Sydney, Australia – said Sandra Pires, 23.

Jacqueline Silva, 34, was moved by the depth of feeling from women on the streets of Rio. “This victory is theirs, because they shared it with us”, she said.

The only title that the Brazilian men’s soccer team has never obtained is that of Olympic Champion. The team prepared itself well, but after losing out on a berth in the finals coach Maro Lobo Zagalo “they weren’t at their best.”

The men’s volleyball team, which won the gold medal in the previous Olympic Games in Barcelona, was also disappointing, losing out to Yugoslavia in the semi-finals.

In the meantime, the women of the volleyball and basketball teams marched on through the qualifying rounds – including wins over favorities Cuba and Russia.

The success of the sportswomen has spilled over into other sectors.

“The athletes have shown women’s capacity to be professional”, said Silvia de Carvahlo Correia, a former history and geography teacher, who is currently a consultant for the Council on Women’s Rights in Sao Paulo.

The victories in Atlanta had given Brazil’s women “an image of fighters” wheras before they were regarded “simply as amateurs,”Correia said.

This has served to raised the confidence for achieving the Council’s motto, “Make 1996 a different year” and the enthusiastic Correia has hopes women will continue on the cest of succcess into the political arena.

Municipal elections are due in Brazil early October with women contesting seats on city council in unprecedented numbers. Nearly 80,000 female candidates will seek election in the 5,000 muncipalities throughout Brazil.

The 35 female representatives in Congress recently achieved a significant triumph, when the house passed a law requiring all political parties to have at least 20 percent women candidates on their lists.

The outstanding performance of women at the Olympic Games had helped demolish belief that they lacked “decision or courage”, says Iaris Ramalho Corts, a lawyer from Brasilia.

It also neutralized the “image of feminine passivity” which, in the past, had kept women from executive positions, said Corts – one of five coordinators of the Women’s Center for Studies and Assessment (CEFMEA), which supports legislative projects on women’s rights.

Because of the affinity Brazilians have for sports an enthusiastic Corts was hopeful the medals won in Atlanta would spur voters to increase female participation in politics in Brazil.