{"id":7776,"date":"2016-08-09T00:30:23","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T00:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/2016\/08\/09\/brazils-first-gold-medal-in-rio-games-goes-to-hometown-judo-champion\/"},"modified":"2016-08-09T00:30:23","modified_gmt":"2016-08-09T00:30:23","slug":"brazils-first-gold-medal-in-rio-games-goes-to-hometown-judo-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/brazils-first-gold-medal-in-rio-games-goes-to-hometown-judo-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Brazil's First Gold Medal In Rio Games Goes To Hometown Judo Champion"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Denice Rios<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Gold<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Gold medalist Rafaela Silva celebrates during the winners ceremony after the women’s 57-kg judo competition in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. Markus Schreiber\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Markus Schreiber\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Brazil won its first gold medal today in this Olympics, when judoka Rafaela Silva defeated Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the women’s 57 kg.<\/p>\n

Judo has a big following in Brazil, and that enthusiasm followed Silva from one match to the next. Silva grew up about 5 miles from where the competition took place today, and her fans packed the stands.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Silva<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Silva defeated Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the Women’s 57 kg judo final in Rio. David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Before her parents moved a mile away, they all lived in a favela known as the “City of God,” one of the most dangerous in Rio de Janeiro. She and her sister, also a judoka, learned early to defend themselves. Their parents got them into judo partly to keep them out of trouble, according to this profile<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Expectations were high for Silva going into these games; she’d already notched a world championship in 2013, and won gold in the Grand Prix in Tbilisi earlier this year. Many expected her to medal in these games.<\/p>\n

About a minute into the final, Silva struck first, scoring a waza-ari<\/a>. There are lots of ways to achieve that in judo, but let’s just say it was a pretty impressive take-down that gave her a huge lead that her opponent couldn’t overcome.<\/p>\n

As time ticked to zero, the crowd erupted. An emotional Silva put her hands to her face, then plowed into the open arms of her euphoric fellow Brazilians.<\/p>\n

She won the gold, but it was all of theirs to share.<\/p>\n

Let’s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> (Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetorch\/2016\/08\/08\/489236342\/brazils-first-gold-medal-in-rio-games-goes-to-hometown-judo-champion?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=sports<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Gold<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Gold medalist Rafaela Silva celebrates during the winners ceremony after the women’s 57-kg judo competition in Rio de Janeiro on Monday. Markus Schreiber\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> Markus Schreiber\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Brazil won its first gold medal today in this Olympics, when judoka Rafaela Silva defeated Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the women’s 57 kg.<\/p>\n

Judo has a big following in Brazil, and that enthusiasm followed Silva from one match to the next. Silva grew up about 5 miles from where the competition took place today, and her fans packed the stands.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Silva<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Silva defeated Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the Women’s 57 kg judo final in Rio. David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

toggle caption<\/strong> David Ramos\/Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Before her parents moved a mile away, they all lived in a favela known as the “City of God,” one of the most dangerous in Rio de Janeiro. She and her sister, also a judoka, learned early to defend themselves. Their parents got them into judo partly to keep them out of trouble, according to this profile<\/a> in the New York Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Expectations were high for Silva going into these games; she’d already notched a world championship in 2013, and won gold in the Grand Prix in Tbilisi earlier this year. Many expected her to medal in these games.<\/p>\n

About a minute into the final, Silva struck first, scoring a waza-ari<\/a>. There are lots of ways to achieve that in judo, but let’s just say it was a pretty impressive take-down that gave her a huge lead that her opponent couldn’t overcome.<\/p>\n

As time ticked to zero, the crowd erupted. An emotional Silva put her hands to her face, then plowed into the open arms of her euphoric fellow Brazilians.<\/p>\n

She won the gold, but it was all of theirs to share.<\/p>\n

Let’s block ads!<\/a><\/strong> (Why?)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[221],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7776\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.us\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}