17 October 2023
From São Paulo to Aberdeen: Brazilian Mixed Team emerges from dedicated curling facility
Brazil is among the 34 nations taking part in the World Mixed Curling Championship 2023 this week at Curl Aberdeen in Scotland.
While this was the sixth appearance by Brazil in this event, the current team is marking a unique achievement on behalf of the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation.
Until now, all of Brazil’s players on the world stage have been based abroad. However, in the shape of Fabiana Campos and Felipe Pires — the married couple who makes up the team’s front end — Brazil is represented for the first time by players who had come into the sport through the new dedicated curling facility in Sao Paulo.
The Arena Ice Brasil opened in 2020, but really got started only after the pandemic. Activities there include a club championship, and when Fabiana and Felipe came along to that event as curious outsiders, little did they know that a year later, they would compete for their country.
As Fabiana says, “Felipe persuaded me to go to the championship, and that was the start.”
Now, things are different and reflecting on the journey the couple has made, Felipe says, “I’m enjoying it all very much and I’m really pleased to be here.”
Reflecting on the momentous nature of their journey, he added, “During the opening ceremony, I almost cried.”
Results of a dedicated curling facility
The impact of having a dedicated facility in Brazil has been marked. As skip Sergio Mitsuo Vilela — who is also a member of the World Curling Federation Board — explains, “Before we had our arena, we had 50 registered curlers. After two years we have 650 people registered… all people who have attended and gone through basic training.
“So that’s the type of impact that you’re going to make through having a facility.”
Sergio added, “Development is also important. Lots of countries, I’m thinking of Portugal for example, start out where you try to find people who are abroad and already know how to play, but have that country’s passport. This is a good way to start in the short term, but development comes through the juniors.
“If you have dedicated ice and people able to teach them, you’ll get juniors involved.”
Wheelchair, mixed doubles and junior growth
He also emphasised another crucial point, saying, “While it’s important that you bring people in to teach curling, you also need to have people capable of teaching others how to teach curling.”
Sergio goes on to explain that progress is happening at a fair old pace. “In partnership with the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, we are training our wheelchair curlers, and they will be making their debut at the world wheelchair championship and the world mixed doubles.
“We are going to be at the Youth Olympic Games in February with a Canadian-based team, but, with the Brasil Arena up and running, we are sure that the next junior teams will come from Brazil itself.”
Brazilian curling is also making progress in other areas that will bear fruit in the future.
Sergio explains again, “The Sportsian Olympic Committee has recognized us for some while, but now, for the first time, curling had a project approved by the Sports Incentive project of the government’s Sports Ministry, and that’s a big deal. It means we can be sponsored and supported by private companies, and they get tax relief on their investment. It also shows the growing level of influence that curling has in Brazil.”
This development gives the Brazil team the right and obligation to proudly wear the highly-regarded official mark of the Brazilian sports incentive law (lei de incentive ao esports) on their uniform, as well as the official seal of the Brazilian Federal Government (Assinaturas Principal – Sports Ministry), what was made possible by fellow São Paulo Curler and now Team Manager Andrea Carlana.
To form this particular team, skip Sergio and third player Fernanda Marques, who are cousins, living in Switzerland and members of the Grasshoppers Curling Club under now two times Brazilian Coach Nicole Hirsig, had already targeted participation in Aberdeen. As Fernanda explained, making the decision at the top of a rollercoaster in Italy.
When they came across Fabiana and Felipe at the Sao Paulo championship, the team line-up was complete. Fabiana and Felipe will go on to compete in the World Mixed Doubles Qualification Event, taking place in Dumfries, Scotland at the start of December.
Although competition is their main focus while in Scotland, the team has also taken the opportunity to visit some historic sites, such as nearby castles and ancient standing stones. They also went to a local cheese factory. “We see there are a lot of sheep here,” they noticed.
Normally, no tourist visit to Scotland would be complete without a trip to a whisky distillery, but that is not on the agenda. As Felipe explains, “Because we’re playing!”
Update: Not everything up to this point has been the perfect fairytale one would expect for such journey, as the hospitalization followed by the passing away of someone dear to the couple led the team to play one game with three players and eventually forfeiting another one altogether. At the time of writing (17 October), it’s not clear if the team will have the mental head space to continue in the competition.
Written by: WCF Senior Journalist, Mike Haggerty
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