Flavia Saraiva: “I wanted to stop training. I said, ‘What am I doing here?’”
After taking five medals at Santiago 2023, the 10-time Pan American Games artistic gymnastics medallist on overcoming adversity to have the best year of her career
Artistic Gymnastics
Watching Brazilian gymnast Flavia Saraiva is often pure joy.
The diminutive 24-year-old has captivated audiences with her big smile, unbridled emotion and breathtaking gymnastics.
But as the two-time Olympian worked her way back from a second ankle surgery in as many years, she started to question whether she could return to form.
“Every time I returned, I felt something different, another foot injury. I wondered ‘what’s my year gonna be like?’ Many people know, but I wanted to stop training,” Saraiva told Olympics.com Wednesday (25 October) after winning two silver medals at the Pan American Games in Santiago. “I said, ‘What am I doing here?’ I can’t compete in my best form. I always want to be among the best.”
She never gave up, battling her way back and achieving historic and career best results.
Earlier this month, Saraiva helped Team Brazil to its first ever team medal at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships, a silver, while she captured her first individual medal at the event, floor exercise bronze.
The medals came in her fifth appearance at the global event.
This week in Santiago, Saraiva grabbed five medals, four silver (team, all-around, balance beam and floor exercise) and one bronze (uneven bars).
“I still can’t believe it, it seems like I’m living a dream, because until the middle of the year, I couldn’t do gymnastics… I couldn’t do beam, floor…” said Saraiva. “So having these historic results for gymnastics – but also historic to me – is a dream. Tonight, I’ll definitely rest my head on the pillow and breath relieved. Ending the year in one piece, not needing surgery – because I had two years in a row of surgeries – is a huge relief for me. I’m thankful because there’s no better feeling than competing happy and enjoying every moment.”
Saraiva: 'It was killing me inside, because I couldn’t do what I loved.'
The Rio-native credits coach Francisco Porath with keeping her in the sport.
“He said, ‘No, why do you want to give up? Do you think this is easy? It’s never easy,’” recalled Saraiva. “Then, I started to look at it from another perspective because I was in pain every day. There wasn’t a day that I was training that I didn’t feel pain. I used to say, ‘I don’t know what to do because I had surgery so my feet could be better. Why is it hurting so much?’ Coming back from surgery is really hard. The first one on the ankle was easier. It hurt when I returned, yes, but I was able to keep going. This second one was really hard for me.
“It hurt so much, and I cried basically every day in practice,” she continued. “Because it hurt, and I couldn’t do gymnastics. And doing gymnastics is what I love the most in life. It was killing me inside, because I couldn’t do what I loved and I’m suffering to do what I love. I didn’t want to feel that anymore.”
As Saraiva’s suffering and frustration grew, she says Porath made her a promise: “We will work this out.”
“I talked to my coach, and he said, ‘No, you won’t stop. Gymnastics depends on you, Brazil is with you. Many people are rooting for you,’” she said. “I want to thank four people who fought a lot with me, Rodrigo [Sasson], my doctor who did the surgery, Lara, my physio Alvaro and Bruno. They said we would get every treatment possible. Rodrigo did a unique surgery in sport.
"When I cried, they cried with me.”