Portrait
Rafaela Silva
Born
24 April 1992Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
JudokaBrazil

Rafaela Silva

From the City of God favela to Olympic gold at home in Rio – a Black, lesbian judoka who answered racist abuse with victory.

Rafaela Silva grew up in the Cidade de Deus (City of God), one of Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious favelas. As a child she got into fights in the street, and her parents sent her to a judo project for children from the favelas, run by the Olympic judoka Flávio Canto.

At the London Olympics in 2012 she was disqualified for an illegal grip. She then received a flood of racist insults on social media and was close to giving up the sport. A year later she became the first Brazilian woman to win a judo world championship.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro she won gold in the under-57 kg category – Brazil’s first gold medal of those Games, won in her home city. She dedicated the victory to the children of the favelas. Silva is openly lesbian and has spoken about racism and homophobia in sport.

In 2019 she tested positive for a banned substance and was suspended for two years. She returned and became world champion again in 2022.

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