BRASÍLIA: The bow string twangs and Bernardo Oliveira, one of Brazil’s army of military-sponsored Olympic athletes, sends his arrow swooping into the target 70 meters (yards) away. Mission accomplished.
Oliveira’s path to the podium at the Rio Games is being planned with military precision. Six days a week for five years, he has fired off 350 arrows – amounting to 546,000 arrows to get to the opening day of competition on August 6 in Rio de Janeiro’s Sambodromo arena.
Sport is often talked about as a non-lethal form of war, and sports training – like military training – requires strategy, physical strength and mental fortitude.
Brazil’s Olympic machine takes that close relationship further, with 145 athletes connected to the military forming a huge contingent within the 465-strong Brazilian team.
The program dates back to 2008 as preparation for the 2011 Military World Games, which Brazil hosted and ended up winning with the biggest number of medals.
But that sporting influence soon went beyond the barracks, with Brazilian military athletes winning five of the country’s 17 medals at the 2012 London Olympics.
Admiral Paulo Zuccaro, who directs the program, says that in the Rio Games, his men and women could win as many as 10 of a possible 30 medals targeted by Brazil in its bid to be among the top 10 countries in the medal count.
“From the start, the program has had an enormous potential to transform Brazil into an Olympic power,” Zuccaro told AFP at the marines base in Brasilia.
“Sport imitates combat and athletes are good soldiers or become good soldiers because they share the values.”
As Brazil seeks to learn from similar programs in China and Russia, it has rapidly expanded the program.
Only 76 of the athletes accepted into the elite training are actually career military, while 594 are civilians who won places and then went through hurried military induction and were given ranks of third sergeant.
Oliveira, formally an air force third sergeant, is one of that category, winning access to sporting and medical facilities and getting a monthly salary.
Tamires Morena, a member of the Brazilian women’s handball team and another of the instant sergeants, says that military culture also gives athletes an edge.
“Civilian athletes think things over and then let themselves get carried away, but in the military they think three, four times. They think a bit more before taking what may be a harmful decision,” she said.
Oliveira says he takes his mixed role seriously.
“The armed forces defend this country and we are doing the same thing. We bear the flag and we defend the name of our country and in a way we serve it,” he said.
Boxer Patrick Lourenco, who comes from the Rio favela of Vidigal, says joining the military team was “essential.”
“I learned a lot about camaraderie, keeping to a schedule and other things, not just as an athlete,” he said. “You learn how to command and how to save someone who needs help. I’m not just Patrick anymore. I’m Sergeant Patrick.”
The 23-year-old boxer has also benefited from the more practical side of being backed by one of Brazil’s biggest institutions.
“In Rio, I couldn’t get into a gym to train, but with the armed forces, I could use the installations in any of their barracks.” --AFP