Of the 14 players who will be part of Yaras (as the Brazilian women’s rugby team is known), 10 will make their Olympic debut in Tokyo. The two of them have something to celebrate other than that they represent Brazil on the other side of the world. Tips Thalia and Thalita da Silva Costa are twins and live together in Japan.
The challenge for Thalita, who has been part of the Brazilian team since January 2019, is to improve the result achieved by selection in the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro to ninth place. “We have good results, apart from worry, our expectations are high. We want to develop and do better in Rio than in Brazil. I have played for the XV rugby team and the beach rugby team. I am actually in the rugby 7 team. Looking forward to making history. Our team is very good. We can upset many selections. We just need to improve some details”, he announced. Brazil Agency.
“Of course we will go in search of the best possible result. But, regardless of our placement, being on the national team with my sister and pursuing this dream of representing our country in the past adds to my joy. I believe that our dream cannot be realized in a more right way”, says Thalia, who has been a member of Yaras team since July 2018.
Currently, both are athletes from one of the country’s main teams, Delta, Piau. But the trajectory in the sport began coincidentally in 2017. “I was into athletics, I didn’t even know rugby. But a friend insisted that we get on the train, that I accepted it and I loved it. It was earlier that year. It took my sister a little longer,” recalls Thalia.
“I had stopped doing physical activities for a long time. It really took me a while to persevere in rugby training. This happened only at the insistence of the technicians. But then I fell in love,” says Thalita.
The women’s rugby tournament at the Tokyo Games will be played from July 29 to 31. The women’s team fell into Group B with Canada (bronze at Rio 2016), France and Fiji. The top two and top two thirds from each of the three groups progressed to the quarter-finals. The current Olympic champions, Australia top Group C along with the United States, China and Japan. The 2018 world champions New Zealand are in Group A along with the United Kingdom, Kenya and the Russian Olympic Committee.
