Adapted from an article that first ran in the Fall 2022 issue of SwimSwam Magazine
Do you know the legend of Tupã?
This Amazonian legend says that an Indigenous couple from the Sateré-Mawé tribe wanted very much to have a child. Therefore, one day, they decided to ask a child to Tupã, the king of Gods. At that sincere request, Tupan gave them a boy.
The couple’s son grew up healthy and became a handsome young man. However, all the goodness and generosity of the little Indian threatened Jurupari, the deity of the wicked. Envying the young man, Jurupari then became a venomous snake and stung the young man, killing him.
Soon Tupã sent thunder and lightning near the village announcing the good boy’s death. When the mother of the dead boy found his body, Tupã told her to bury her son’s body on the ground near the village and cry upon him for 4 days. So, in the place where he was, a new kind of plant start to grow up, Guaranà.
Guaranà is one of the ingredients that make up the diversified and delicious Brazilian identity. Guaranà’s beneficial properties are multiple and certified and made him a long-life elixir. Looking at the Brazilian swimming team everyone would think that most of the athletes fall into a cauldron full of guaranà elixir.
As we all remember, in Tokyo 2020, Bruno Fratus became the oldest pool swimmer in history to win his first Olympic medal when he took the bronze at the age of 32 and 32 days, in the 50 free, after Dressel and Manaudou. Almost one year after this achievement, Fratus earned another big goal. With the time of 21.61, he reached the milestone of 100 times sub 22” in 50 free LCM.
The Brazilian curse is not just a male thing. If we consider pool and open water events, another Brazilian swimmer appears in this special chart. Poliana Okimoto is the oldest female swimmer in history to win their first Olympic medal when she took the silver in the 10 km race in Rio 2016 at 33 years of age.
Looking at the World Championships history, both long and short course, among the top 5 of the oldest swimmers who won a medal there are three names after a green and gold flag.
Joao Gomes Junior is the 5th oldest swimmer to win a medal at the FINA World Championships. He won the bronze medal in the 50 breaststroke at 33 years, 184 days in Gwangju 2019. In the same race, Felipe Lima won the silver medal becoming the 3rd oldest in history at 34 years, 110 days. Lima is also 4th in this chart if we consider short course championships and Joao Gomes Junior is 3rd. Both these athletes are still active.
32, 33, 34. These are numbers that prove Brazilian longevity, and we can add other names like Guilherme Guido who smashed records and records at ISL last season at 34.
But there is one swimmer who definitely changed all the rules in swimming history.
Nicholas Santos became the oldest swimmer to win a medal at World Aquatics Championships in 2017 when he was 37. Then he improved his record when he won a medal in 2019 at 39 years of age, and again in 2022 at 42 years of age, when he became the only swimmer over 40 years old to win a medal at World Aquatics Championships. Today, during the Short Course World Championship in Melbourne he broke this record another time winning the 50 fly at 42 years and 303 days.
Santos said after his race that this will be his last competition and that he is very proud of his career and achievements. He also said that he was sorry because he could have swum the WR if it wasn’t so could out.
It could be Guaranà elixir, it could be the mood and love of life with Brazilian people live, we don’t know. But Brazilian Seleção is telling everybody once again: it is never too late.
With rare exceptions, Santos practically only swims the 50m butterfly since 2015. He became an expert in this event, in addition to taking good care of himself physically (he has a degree in physiotherapy). In other cases like those of Guido, Lima and Gomes Jr, no one stronger in the country appears to replace them and they continue representing the country – as it can be said that their career has worked, they remain at a high level.
Is “Guaranà” a metaphor for steroids? Cause the article is written in such a way that it is.
It smelled that way to me too. There are a lot of athletes that I am suspicious of, (Santos isn’t on my radar) but it just isn’t right to accuse people of cheating without evidence.
The Brazilians don’t have a great track record on this. People do it to the Russians for the same reason
I think yinz might be projecting a bit. I just read this as an interesting cultural & history lesson about Brazil.