Brazil
Miratus
Developing badminton-based educational programs in Brazilian slums.
13 years already! A long and beautiful story, full of dreams realized and destinies changed. And I’m sure it’s not over yet!
My name is Gwenaëlle Maitre, I’m 47 years old and this wonderful adventure began one fine day in February 2007 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) when I met for the first time Sebastião Dias de Oliveira, Founder of the NGO Miratus, a voluntary project teaching Badminton to the children of Chacrinha, a favela west of the city of Rio.
A few weeks earlier, a report on Brazilian television about the project had caught my attention, so I decided to go and find out for myself. At the time, I’d been with the company for 11 years, was CFO of Decathlon Brazil and had been living for 8 years in Sao Paulo, a Brazilian megalopolis located 500 km from Rio (where we didn’t yet have any operations).
What followed was, as I’m wont to say, a gigantic snowball of energy! In just over 18 months, the entire Brazilian team heard about the Miratus project, more than 50 Decathletes visited the association, Artengo (a Tennis passion brand) supplied large quantities of equipment and the Decathlon Foundation approved its first support, to train young educators and change the gymnasium floor so that it was suitable for the practice of the sport. And on October 18, 2008, Miratus inaugurated its new fields at a party organized by Foundation volunteers. A giant, as you can see in this report made at the time by the Decathlon Foundation.
Almost 12 years later, this could be a story of the past, especially when you consider how difficult it is for these projects to survive over the years. Well, it’s not. The challenges certainly continue (Miratus is currently struggling to find new supporters for its 2020 year), but so does the beautiful story between Miratus and Decathlon, and the association’s list of conquests continues to grow!
Gwenaëlle Maitre
Former CFO of Decathlon Brazil
MIRATUS, A SHOWCASE FOR CHAMPION SEEDS
Miratus has become Brazil’s biggest breeding ground for badminton champions. In 12 years, it has won over 75 medals at the Pan-American Jr Championships (45% of Brazil’s medals and 65% of its gold medals!).
Ygor and Lohaynny, 2 of Miratus’ youngsters, who were 12 years old when the sports complex was inaugurated in 2008, were the first 2 Brazilians in the history to take part in the Olympic Badminton Games in Rio 2016, not because Brazil was entitled to a place. They earned their place thanks to their talent.
Ygor then took off. Today, he speaks fluent English, is among the top 50 players in the world and lives in Denmark, one of the most renowned countries in Badminton, where he plays on one of the country’s top teams. He is a great ambassador for Miratus and Dectathlon, and has been a proud Perfly technical partner for 12 years.
Jonathanis following in Ygor’s footsteps. He spent 3 months in Denmark with Ygor and is now determined to become one of the best badminton players on the planet.
Renan and Pedro work in the Decathlon store in Barra, which has already seen a dozen young people pass through its doors over the last few years, giving them all great values for life.
Some beautiful stories
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