Patricia Sampaio is the first Portuguese woman to walk the catwalk in Paris.

At 25, the athlete, born in Tomar, where she still competes for Sociedade Filarmónica Gualdim Pais, became the fourth Portuguese judoka to reach the podium. She follows in the footsteps of Nuno Delgado (2000), Thelma Monteiro (2016) and Jorge Fonseca (2020), the latter two of whom were part of the delegation that celebrated the achievement in Paris. Judo ranks alongside sailing as the second sport that has contributed most to Portugal’s 29 Olympic medals; athletics has 12.

Patricia, ranked 13th in the world in the under-78 kg category, was not among the favorites for a medal in the judo delegation. His best result in his career was 3rd place at the European Championships. And at the World Championships, as well as at the Tokyo Games, he did not rise higher than 9th place. But this Thursday he outdid himself. In the 1/8 finals, he knocked out his home athlete, Frenchwoman Madeleine Malonga (ranked 6th), and in the “quarters” – Chinese Zhenzhao Ma (ranked 5th). Only in the “half” he was stopped by Italian Alice Bellandi, the world leader and now Olympic champion. In the fight for bronze against Japanese Rika Takayama (ranked 9th), Patricia won the fourth fight by ippon.

“It all feels like a dream. Even when I lost the semi-final, I didn’t let it affect me. I cleared my head: we have another fight ahead of us, and I think that was very important. I wish this list [judocas com medalhas] “Become bigger and bigger, say my name more often and the names of more of my colleagues,” said Patricia, who received congratulations from the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and the Prime Minister, Luis Montenegro.

DETAILS
Head at the end
At 40, three months after becoming a mother, Ana Cabesinha has put an end to her career. He finished last in the 20 km march. He is saying goodbye to three top-10 performances at the Olympics.

Distant victory
Vitória Oliveira finished 38th in the 20km walk, finishing in 1hr 36min 22min, 10min 28min behind the winner, China’s Jiayu Yang. The Portuguese athlete finished in a far from perfect time of 1hr 32min 32min.

Miguel was disappointed
Miguel Nascimento failed to qualify for the 50m freestyle semi-finals after finishing 36th in qualifying with a time of 22.49 seconds. The swimmer admitted he was disappointed.

Camila is sad
Camila Rebelo missed the 200m backstroke qualifying heats, finishing 19th and missing out on the semi-finals. A result that left the swimmer from Luzan disappointed.

Jorge is out
Judoka Jorge Fonseca, bronze medalist at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and world champion in 2019 and 2021, was eliminated in the 1/8 finals in the 100 kg category by ippon.