Brazilian table tennis star headed to Olympics and Paralympics

A video online shows Brazilian table tennis star Bruna Alexandre defeating her competitor from Hungary during the World Table Tennis Games in South Korea earlier this year.

At one point, she’s 15 feet back from the table, and her opponent slams the ball at her, but Alexandre comes back to win the point.

This attitude of hard work and commitment is what stood out to her longtime coach, Alexandre Ghizi, from the moment he met her. 

“She is an athlete who puts in a lot of hard work and dedication,” he said. “And it’s not easy doing what she did. She left home at 16 years old so she could exclusively focus on her training.”

This year, Alexandre will be the first Brazilian to compete in both the Olympics and the Paralympics in the same year. Alexandre, who lost her right arm to thrombosis when she was just 3 months old, is one of only a handful of people in the world who will have been in both competitions in the history of the Games.

Alexandre’s home state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, is one of the strongest for table tennis in the country. Teenage athletes practice at a municipal gym in the state capital, Florianópolis. They’re members of the Florianópolis Association of Table Tennis Players.

Their coach, Micael de Souza, is one of the top under-21 players in the country. 

It’s not Ping-Pong, de Souza said.

“It’s not just a game. It’s really a sport. It’s a profession.”

Players practice daily after school for three to four hours — a similar regimen for Alexandre.

Ghizi said that when she was young, Alexandre lived next to the gymnasium in Criciuma where he coached table tennis. Her brother played.

Ghizi handed Alexandre her first racket. Within a few years, she was already turning heads. 

When she was interviewed by a local TV outlet 14 years ago, Alexandre had won over a hundred medals at different competitions. She was only 15 years old.

“I lost my arm when I was little, but for me, it’s normal,” she said. “Just having one arm isn’t the end of the world. You just have to continue. You have to be a warrior and fight.”

She’s since fought her way to Brazilian championships and top medals at Paralympic Games.

Marcelo Haiachi, a professor at the Federal University of Sergipe and a Paralympic coach, spoke about her from Brazil’s Paralympic training headquarters in São Paulo.

He said that most people don’t understand that you have to do twice the work to classify for both the Olympics and Paralympics.

“There’s two different circuits, with different competitions all across the world. Just the schedule itself is grueling.”

Alexandre is ranked second in the world for the Paralympics. But she’s not expected to medal at the Olympics. There are other Brazilians who may. Haiachi said that’s not the point.

“It really doesn’t matter if she wins a medal,” Haiachi said. “It’s just the fact that she is there, with her name, making history as a disabled Brazilian woman using sport to improve her life.”

Back at the gym in Florianópolis, 15-year-old table tennis athlete Artur Lunardelli is training hard. He said what impressed him most about Alexandre was her serve. 

“Usually, you need the other hand to toss the ball up in the air, but she does it by tossing the ball up with her racket,” he said. “It’s much harder.”

De Souza said Alexandre and others like her are an inspiration. 

“Here in Brazil, everyone is so obsessed with soccer,” he said. “So, when athletes like Bruna reach the podium on the world stage, it really helps to grow our sport here in Brazil. They really help to spread the word.” 

And that is exactly what she will do in Paris over the next two months.