Notes

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Moments after winning Brazil's first gold medal of the Olympics, Rafaela Silva started to cry. She wiped away her tears, and said that if it wasn't for judo, "I could still be playing in City of God."

Five miles away, in Rio's "City of God" neighborhood, a 44-year-old doorman named Claudio Roberto joined a crowd watching the ceremony on a small television on the sidewalk. A national hero was a rare thing in the slum.

City of God is one of the poorest neighborhoods in Brazil. Its concrete homes have graffiti all over their walls and a trash-filled canal runs through the area. But with the 24-year-old judo master's win, Roberto said, "you forget about your own suffering a little bit."

"For this community, her victory means everything," said Tony Barros, a photographer and community organizer in City of God. "What other legacy will we get from the Olympics?"

Life In Favelas Can Be Dangerous

Olympic organizers boast of Rio's white-sand beaches and majestic mountains, but the Games have also put a spotlight on the city's favelas. The Opening Ceremonies depicted these poor neighborhoods as a home of music and dance, of samba and baile funk, a type of Brazilian dance music. But recent news has also highlighted the everyday dangers of living in a favela. Armed robberies and gun fights are common.

When Silva's smiling face appeared on the front pages of newspapers on Tuesday morning, the country erupted in national pride. Brazilians were seeing a face from a part of society often ignored or mistreated. "City of God and Gold," read one headline.

Almost one-quarter of Rio's inhabitants live in favelas. The residents tend to be poor and black. In 2009, when Brazil was chosen to host the 2016 Olympic Games, city officials promised to start projects that would provide a better life for people living in favelas.

Some were supposed to last well beyond the Games, like a program called Morar Carioca. This program was supposed to bring running water, a sewage system, paved streets and public lighting to all favelas by 2020, but by mid-2014 it had died. Meanwhile, an estimated 60,000 people lost their homes because stadiums and other projects for the Olympics were being built.

The Silva Family Settles In City Of God

The government built City of God in the 1960s and 1970s. Residents were moved from wooden shanties located near wealthier, beachfront neighborhoods into concrete homes outside of town. Many saw the projects as an effort to move poor people out of sight.

Silva's father, Luiz Carlos, arrived at City of God with his family in 1966, when he was 3 years old, after his parents' home collapsed. "We used to run out of light all the time when I was a kid, run out of water. I had to go far away to buy cooking gas and carry it back," he remembered.

Luiz Carlos Silva and his wife, Zenilda Silva, put their two daughters, Rafaela and Raquel, into sports classes at a young age. They hoped this would keep the girls out of trouble.

"We saw bandits fleeing from the police and raiding our house. We couldn't even play in the street like other children could," Rafaela Silva told reporters.

Judo Is A Way Out

As a child, she lived in a three-story yellow concrete house on Jesse Street in City of God. She was tough and rambunctious, and chose judo at the local community center over dance classes. After she tried out a few moves on other kids, angry parents called her parents.

"The mothers were complaining because she was beating up their boys and they didn't like it," her father said.

When Silva started training, her talent was undeniable. She moved to a judo school opened by a former Olympic medalist and blossomed into a junior champion, and the family left City of God.

On the day after Silva won her gold medal, her relatives gathered on the sidewalk outside the family home. Cousins, uncles and a grandmother in a wheelchair shared photographs of her and old newspaper clippings.

"Thank God her father invested in her," Christiane Silva, her aunt, said. "Thank God she's still in this career."

Silva Didn't Give Up, Despite Obstacles

Silva considered quitting judo after losing at the 2012 Olympics in London. She was barred from the games for using a move that had once been common but had recently been banned. The heartbreak was made worse by cruel comments hurled at her on the Internet that made fun of her dark skin. The hate speech devastated her, and she stopped practicing.

Many people encouraged Silva to return to the sport, including her relatives and even Brazilian soccer star Neymar. After a few months off, she resumed her path to the Olympics.

"She showed everyone she is a proud human being," said her aunt Christiane.

"We're really happy for her; we're happy for the City of God."