Student Laura Paiva ended her last participation in the Brazilian University Games (JUBs) this week with gold. At 25 years old, she was the big winner of the 49kg category in taekwondo and became three-time Jubs champion. This time with a big difference. The competition took place in Natal and Laura was able to count on the support of her family and friends. “I have participated in the Jubs since 2019, I completed a cycle, I closed with a flourish, I am a three-time champion, and I counted on my fans, my parents, my training colleagues, so there was no better feeling”, she celebrates.
Laura has a degree in Geography and is currently studying the sixth period of Pedagogy at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and is in the first period of her master’s degree in Geography at the same university. In addition to the hours dedicated to studying and training, she is also a teacher at a public school in the quilombola community of Coqueiros, in the municipality of Ceará Mirim. A hectic routine.
“It’s not easy, and I believe that I can only do all this because I really have a support network. I have my parents, I don’t live with them anymore, but I have them at all times, whenever I need them. I have my partner who is also up and down with me whenever I need them. Without them I wouldn’t be able to do it”, he explains.
In addition to the hours dedicated to studying and training, Laura Paiva is also a teacher at a public school in the quilombola community of Coqueiros, in the municipality of Ceará Mirim (RN) – Paulo José/CBDU/Reserved Rights
Even with the difficulties in fitting everything into her schedule, Laura does not give up on sports and believes that it brings many benefits to her routine.
“I see the athlete’s mind as a different mind. We practice not because we expect a financial result, but because of what we feel, because of what we want to achieve, because of our dreams. When we set our minds to something, it is above all else. We really go after what we want. And I believe that today I can only do all of this, both in my sporting life, as a professional athlete, and in my academic life, because of sport”, he reveals.
Laura’s love for sport ended up infecting her students as well. “We have to think a lot about sport beyond high performance, but sport as part of human development”, he believes. Laura says that she started a taekwondo project at the school where she works and more than 25 students managed to qualify for the final phase of the Rio Grande do Norte School Games (Jerns).
“This coming from a public school that is a rural school within a quilombola community”, she adds. Laura highlights that it is gratifying to see the students’ commitment to sport. “They are able to experience sports there beyond what is very common for teenagers nowadays, which are social networks, screens and everything else”, he concludes.
* Verônica Dalcanal traveled to Natal at the invitation of the Brazilian Confederation of University Sports.
