From violence to the Olympics, all in their hometown

Record ID: 103982

  • Title: From violence to the Olympics, all in their hometown
  • Date: 11th May 2016
  • Summary: RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL (RECENT) (REUTERS) VICENTE SISTERS PLAYING BADMINTON IN FRONT OF OLYMPIC RINGS IN MADUREIRA PARK
  • Embargoed: 26th May 2016 13:40
  • Keywords: Lohaynny Vicente Luana Vicente Rio de Janeiro Badminton favela Rio 2016 Olympics Williams Sisters
  • Location: RIO DE JANEIRO AND SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
  • City: RIO DE JANEIRO AND SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
  • Country: Brazil
  • Topics: Olympics,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA0024HD71HJ
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: The future once looked anything but bright for Lohaynny and Luana Vicente, Brazilian sisters whose father, a drug dealer, was killed in a shootout with police when they were just 4 and 6-years-old.
    But sixteen years after that tragic day, the two sisters are elite athletes and rising stars in badminton, a sport little played in a country better known for soccer and surfing.
    So far have they come that Lohaynny, now 20, classified to compete in the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, a city that is not just their hometown, but the proud host of the first Olympics ever to be held in South America.
    "It is the first time that Brazil is going to take part in badminton in the Olympics, and I am the first woman, so I think it is significant for badminton," says Lohaynny, eagerly awaiting the Games, which start August 5.
    While Luana did not make the cut-off in global rankings that gave her sister a spot, she is proud of having introduced Lohaynny to the sport and having played beside her in doubles, winning a silver medal together at the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto.
    "Everyone can make it to where they want to be, all you have to do is want it. I wanted to be here, I wanted to be an example, and I worked hard for it. I did not make it to the Olympics but my highlight was the Pan-American Games of 2015. When I stepped up on that podium I saw my whole history, everything I had done to get to that point," she said.
    As toddlers, the girls had to move around frequently with their father as he hid from police and rival drug gangs in Rio's notorious favelas, slums that often lack basic services, including security.
    After his death, in the western part of the city, the girls' mother moved them to Chacrinha, a favela in northern Rio. Though rackets and shuttlecocks are as rare as police in some favelas, a coach had recently set up a social program to teach badminton to kids in the community.
    First Luana, then Lohaynny, excelled. Now, they live in a house paid for by the Brazilian Badminton Federation in Campinas, near Sao Paulo. They earn a salary from the federation and enjoy sponsorship deals.
    After practising all day, they study. And occasionally, they get home to Rio, where their mother now lives in a house in a middle-class neighbourhood - not far from the favela where they first swung their rackets.
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