01/04/2017, this was the day that our team officially started. We held a press conference at the Marina Club, in Rio de Janeiro and shared with everyone our first goal as a team: to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Ready! We threw our desire into the universe, now it was time to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

I'll start with my partner Duda. She left the city of São Cristóvão, in the interior of Sergipe, to live in a big city like Rio de Janeiro. Away from the family and only 18 years old, imagine the pressure she must have felt when she started to live an Olympic cycle. I found myself in it in some situations 15 years ago, when I moved to Rio and came to play with Sandra Pires, also an Olympic medalist. I was homesickness, and had a certain pressure to become a professional, mixed with a crazy desire to win and learn, in a very rich moment full of discoveries. So we started our partnership, I understood Duda very well during this transition.

2017 was a year of many novelties, with quick results even and a team that was getting to know each other. The entire team has always been made up of very heterogeneous people, men and women of different ages and from all corners of Brazil. It was not very easy. However, when the team has goals, they all move towards the same end, so we had to learn how to adapt under pressure.

​Começamos passando um tempo em Saquarema-RJ, que é onde fica o Centro de Treinamento da Seleção Brasileira de Voleibol. Lugar ótimo pra treinar e se concentrar. Logo depois viajamos para a nossa primeira etapa do circuito brasileiro, em João Pessoa-PB. E tchantchantchantchan… vencemos a etapa! Que massa! Começamos com o pé direito!

The year followed and many national and international tournaments came. We won more titles (I will not list here, you can go there in the title link, okay? Don't be lazy kkkkkkk). In November we received some bad news: the FIVB changes the rule for ranking on the world tour and starts to count a smaller number of tournaments in the sum for the score. With that, our score drops and forces us to make the difficult decision of practically not having a vacation, and to start the year of 2018 already playing in the Netherlands. To add to that, I still have surgery on the nasal sinuses to unblock them. What a way to end the year!

So, after Christmas, we went to The Hague. The result of the tournament: very bad, we ended up in ninth place. And the beginning of the year followed a little similar, we were having difficulty making a podium on the Brazilian tour as well.

In the middle of the year we got a new coach, in a very competitive period, a time when we played many tournaments around the world. Our results were generally stable. We were sometimes in fifth and won some podiums. The international year ended with our victory at the Word Tour Finals in Germany and the achievement of the 2018 World Circuit. Duda received incredible individual awards from the FIVB and I received two very special ones: Most inspiring player and Sportsman of the year. I felt very honored. Very very happy.

The year went on, we played a tournament in a new format called King of the Court (even a hurricane passed through Hawaii, where the event was held) and we played some more tournaments in Brazil. We ended the year with a victory in Campo Grande-MS. Now it's time for vacation!

2019 started and our thinking was one: it is the year of the Olympic race! We started with a podium in the Brazilian Tour, but focused on preparing for the international tournaments. The scenario was: many good teams for just two spots.

The year of an Olympic race is always a special year. It would be worth a separate chapter. But I prefer to keep everything between me and my team. They are very intense moments of a team and a lot of learning. Who knows, maybe I will write a book later. For now we will keep the results part. There were twelve tournaments. We made seven semifinals and went on the podium five times. One of these very special: we won in Tokyo at the test event for the Olympics.

​Depois da etapa de Roma, em outubro, saiu a tão esperada confirmação: nosso time tinha conquistado uma das vagas para jogar as Olimpíadas em Tóquio!

Jeez... how much we lived and learned so far! I always think that it is the difficult periods that transform us. I really believe that.

Nestas linhas escrevi um pouco do que nosso time viveu nestes três anos. A real é que o buraco é muito mais embaixo…kkkk… falando tanto dos momentos difíceis que passamos, que nos deixam tristes, como dos momentos de alegria, das conquistas, onde o sentimento sempre é de que tudo valeu a pena.

I want to end by saying that I am very happy with everything we are experiencing. Many things happen in our lives and we don't understand at first. But God always knows what is best for us. You have to trust. The important thing is to focus on our goals and go for it with all our strength. If we will conquer? We do not know. But we will always be sure that we have done our best. And this is how we will enter 2020, giving our maximum. And very happy to be doing what we love.

​Quero finalizar dizendo que estou muito feliz com tudo que estamos vivendo. Muitas coisas acontecem nas nossas vidas e a gente não entende no primeiro momento. Mas Deus sempre sabe o que é melhor pra nós. É preciso confiar. O importante é focarmos nos nossos objetivos e corrermos atrás com todas as nossas forças. Se vamos conquistar? Não sabemos. Mas teremos sempre a certeza que demos o nosso máximo. E é assim que entraremos em 2020, dando o nosso máximo. E muito felizes por estarmos fazendo o que amamos. Vamos juntos nessa?