Jackie Silva: An Olympic Champion's journey

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the start, permanence and retirement as a volleyball player of Olympic champion Jacqueline Silva. In volleyball for decades, she shows that her legacy goes far beyond an expressive contribution to it and includes, with merit, the affirmation of women in sports. In order to meet our objective, we conducted a semi-structured interview with the former player using as methodological basis the oral History framework. We found that she overcame many barriers in order to start and keep herself active in volleyball. We inferred that her unique journey is a reference of success and a remarkable contribution to the professionalization of women's sports and to the rise of sports in Brazil and worldwide.