The Brazilian men’s and women’s goalball teams convened for the Parapan de Jovens de Bogotá (COL), which will take place in June of this year, are made up of four athletes who began their trajectory in School of Paralympic Sports of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee (CPB). That is to say, of the 12 players, 25% were created by the CPB sports initiation project.

They are: Amanda Braz, Fabio Souza Junior, Wellington Eri and Ana Beatriz Simões, the only one still in the project.

Escolinha, as the project is affectionately called, has been designed and carried out by the CPB since 2018 and aims to promote sports initiation for children and adolescents with physical, visual and intellectual disabilities, aged 7 to 17, in thirteen Paralympic sports: athletics, badminton, pétanque, wheelchair fencing, blind football, goalball, weightlifting, judo, swimming, table tennis, archery, triathlon and sitting volleyball.

Six other summoned are part of the CPB reference centers, a project that takes advantage of sports spaces across the country for the development of national para-sports, from grassroots to high-level football. Lucas Araken, Kemilly Vitória and Graziele Mendes are from Brasilia (DF). Francisca Raíssa da Silva and Ana Beatriz Paulino, from Fortaleza (CE). Finally, André Luiz da Silva trains in Várzea Grande (MT).

The other conscripts, Isaías Roberto de Souza and Marco Antônio, together with the ten others, took part in the School Paralympic Gamesthe largest sporting event in the world for young people of school age and also organized by the CPB.

For Altemir Trapp, coach of the women’s goalball team, the strong participation of students in CPB projects indicates the importance of these initiatives for the revival of high-level goalball in Brazil. “These development programs are essential to strengthen and promote sport in our country. They are very well established and train top-level athletes”.

The Youth Parapan American Games will have contests in 12 modalities, with the participation of athletes from the age group of 12 to 20 years. Find out more information about the event here.

In addition to this competition, the new generation of goalball will also participate in the Youth World Cup in July at the Paralympic Training Center in São Paulo.