The main name of the Brazilian winter sport in the last decade, Isadora Williams will be hanging up her skates this season. The ice skating athlete did not find a place at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games early next year and decided to end her career.
“I competed in both Olympics and fulfilled my dream of competing in two Olympics. Beijing will be a more extra Olympics, a fun one. It was not my goal to compete in three Olympics. Still, I trained a lot for qualifying.” It didn’t happen. Now dreams, other goals,” Isadora said in a video interview straight from USA.
In Brazil, winter sports are split between sports played on snow and ice, and Isadora will retire as the biggest name in this second group. She was born in the United States of America in the state of Georgia, the daughter of Alexa Williams, a Brazilian immigrant with an American. The girl debuted for Brazil in 2010, when she took part in the Junior World Championships.
Since then, it has broken down barriers. She was the first Brazilian to compete at the Winter Olympics in Sochi–2014, and repeated the feat in Pyeongchang, when she qualified for the final, an unprecedented feat for a South American athlete, who finished 24th. Stayed on In the World Cup, it reached the same spot in 2019.
But then came the pandemic. “I couldn’t train. In America, the rules were very strong. The track I train on in New Jersey was closed for six months. I didn’t know that this would continue, if there was going to be a season, There was no championship. It was very strange,” he says, alternating between expressions in Portuguese and others in English.
Graduating as an athlete at Virginia State, Brazil moved to New Jersey in 2017 to attend college. In the pandemic, however, he returned to his mother, only to return to his training base in late 2020. “It wasn’t the same thing. You lose muscle, you lose rhythm. I don’t want to make excuses, but I was already 24, it wasn’t easy,” justifies the skater, who Had to deal with a fractured leg.
In September, she entered the Nebelhorn Trophy in Germany, the last Pre-Olympics, as an underdog. After finishing 32nd in the short program, she dropped out of the competition without appearing in the long program. Was removed, officially said goodbye to the fight for a vacancy in Beijing.
Before retiring, Isadora comes to Brazil in December to participate in the Brazil Championships, which will be held at a skating rink built by CBDG, the Brazilian federation, in a warehouse in So Paulo. “What happened in Germany was disappointing, so I want to redeem myself. I don’t want the Nebelhorn Trophy to be my last competition. Last time the World Championships, which would be in France.
About to graduate as a contractor, she plans to move to So Paulo in the near future and give ice skating lessons to young Brazilian athletes, passing on her knowledge of nearly two decades in North American skating. Is. According to Isadora’s plans, she would work remotely for clients in the United States, supporting herself with the service, but staying engaged with skating through classes.
In interviews, she was unable to name any Brazilian, or even Brazilian, who could take her place in the sport’s international scene. “When I was in Canoes for the Brazilian nationals in 2019, I saw potential kids, but it’s hard because some lose interest, get hurt. It’s hard to say whether they’ll continue. I hope that Other Brazilians, Brazilian-Americans, Brazilian-Canadians, Brazilians who live in Europe, wherever they are, continue this tradition.”
