Former Olympic athletes train Brazil favela kids

Former professional athletes in Brazil have started a sports program in the Caramujo Favela with the city hall of Niteroi, offering kids and teenagers training in various Olympic sports in order to give them an opportunity for a better future.

Inaugurated in the end of 2020, the Caramujo Social and Sports Park offers weightlifting, badminton, archery, athletics, skating and wrestling classes for those young people who live in the favela.

Lately, it also started offering functional training for adults and elderly as a public health solution.

"Our biggest dream is not even a medal, is to give them an opportunity", said Juliano Rocha, who supervises the project.

Rocha, a professional athlete himself, trailed his path through sports, from high school to university scholarships. He now supervises almost 200 people that are enrolled in the project.

He added that collective sports should begin after the pandemic and new individual sports like fencing are in the horizon.

Pan-american medalist in weightlifting, Aline Campeiro teaches her expertise in the sport at the project. As someone herself who started in a social sports project in the Mangueira favela in Rio de Janeiro, she knows first-hand the impact of sports in people's lives.

"When they come here, they get together, they chat, their conversation involves sports, it changes their ideas," Campeiro said.

Caramujo favela in Niteroi was often seen in the news on crime and police clashes, but has seen public investment in the last years.

Teachers hope to discover local hidden talents who would've never been discovered if it wasn't for the access the project offers to olympic sports.