According to Adriana Araújo, money was never her main motivation, but she had to use reason to make difficult decisions throughout her career. That's why she took the initiative to auction her medal at the sports memorial.
“At that moment, I had to use reason. I was short on money and saw an opportunity in the medal. At 11 am, it went up for auction. By 4 pm, I already had a buyer. I sold it for R$150,000. I didn't know whether to be happy or sad. Happy for the money, but sad to see the medal go, my greatest achievement,” the 42-year-old former athlete told.
What the boxer didn't expect was that her bronze medal won at the 2012 London Olympic Games, the first in Brazilian women's boxing, would return to her hands. And the best part of the whole story: the R$150,000 went to support the former athlete in setting up a boxing gym in São Paulo.
After two weeks, it was revealed that the real buyer of the medal was Alexandre Fonseca, CEO of Superbet Brasil, a betting house that decided, upon seeing the athlete's case, to place the highest bid on the object and keep the Bahian athlete with the medal and gloves in her hands.
“We were touched that a high-performance athlete was in this situation. That's why we wanted to help her with this next step and be able to provide her with a more peaceful retirement. From that moment on, after it was revealed that we were the ones who won the bid, we sat down to talk and offered her the opportunity to use the gym,” says Patrícia Prates, marketing director of Superbet Brasil.
With the financial support and management mentoring offered by the company, the boxer will open the boxing studio in September. The space will be dedicated to classes, lectures and training of new athletes and she celebrates the opportunity.
As for the medal, Araújo does not hide her happiness at having the object back in her hands. “I've always been very attached to it. I experienced joy in London and now that it's back, I couldn't believe it. It was like I had won twice. As for the academy, I see an opportunity to give back to the sport for all it has given me. I cannot be ungrateful to this sport.”
