December 2, 2022

18:12

Ívina Garcia – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – To 12 years, the Amazon swimmer Adriele Marcela da Cruz Cordeiro is the biggest record holder in the category Petiz in Brazil, from 11 to 12 years, and accumulates more than 60 gold medals in the North-Northeast competition, besides the title of Amazonian swimming hexacampeã.

Recently, she won four medals in the Brazilian School Games 2022 (JEBS) in a dispute with girls aged 12 to 14 from other states. Adriele brought to the Amazon a gold medal, two silver and a bronze.

The JEBS are the main school sports competition in the country, organized by the Federal Government, which aims to provide student athletes the development of sports values, sports and cultural exchange and the chance to become professional athletes.

Despite her young age, the athlete has a significant curriculum in the sport. It all started during a trip with her parents and twin brother to a water park in the Northeast, where Marcela and her seven-year-old brother ventured onto a toboggan, even though they couldn’t swim.

Adinilson Cordeiro, father of the twins, says that the two went with floats on the toy, accompanied by their mother Jacinete Cordeiro. The father, worried about the adventure of children, called a lifeguard to be on standby and act, if something happened after the descent in toboggan.

“There was a lifeguard and I told him: look, I have twin sons and when I tell you ‘fall’ into the pool, because the girl is bold, she will drop the buoy, because I know the figure,” he recalls. “It was said and done, Marcela got out of the slide, dropped the buoy and when the lifeguard got close to her, she turned and said ‘let go of me because I can swim’, but at the time she didn’t even know”, reveals her father.

Marcela went swimming in the “puppy” style and the lifeguard stood around watching the future athlete’s resourcefulness. “That’s how it started. The same day we arrived in Manaus I went looking for a swimming school to put them in”, she says.

The father is the one who follows the daughter’s career more closely, while the mother is responsible for bureaucratic and sponsorship issues. Adinilson recalls that since the first day of swimming lessons, Marcela stood out and, in the second week at the school, she was already crossing the pool and swimming at competitive level.

Lack of incentive

Even with so much talent, Adriele’s parents say they have to pay for their daughter’s competitions out of their own pocket. The athlete was selected to receive the social program of the State Government, the “Athlete Scholarship”, but so far no payment has been made.

“We have a great athlete who is more recognised abroad than in the State. We have already done several reports, but no one has ever wanted to invest, it’s just me and my mother who are running after sponsorship, but we are still fighting”, says Adinilson.

From 2023 the swimmer’s family is preparing for competitions in new category, now Marcela should move to the Children’s category and plans to bring more medals for the Amazon. “I’m sure Marcela will pass the squeegee next year, as well as passed in the North-Northeast”, says the father.