London 2012 Olympics: Favela boy Nivalter Santos aiming to steer his way to a medal

It is just under 6,000 miles from Brazil’s impoverished east coast to London, but it is not just the vast distances that make Nivalter Santos’s journey to the capital for next year’s Olympics so unlikely.

Spool back to Santos’s teenage years, and thoughts of sparkling stadiums and medal podiums were the stuff of idle fantasy. He was living in Vicente, in Sao Paulo state, in the notorious favela known as ‘Mexico 70’, where he dreamed of earning a living as a street juggler.

“I took a course,” he said. “After finishing it, myself and some friends wanted to form a group of jugglers. We were young and did not have jobs and we had the idea to juggle at traffic lights to earn money. But then I discovered canoeing.”

Or perhaps rediscovered. As a young boy, growing up in a sleepy town in the state of Sergipe, Santos would sometimes paddle his father’s little fishing boat along the local river for fun. When his parents separated, the opportunity to practise his rowing skills disappeared from the boy’s life along with his father. But when, aged 17, a friend offered the chance to take up canoeing lessons, he did not think twice.

The only issue was the cost – 20 Brazilian reais (£7.90) per month. Nivalter only had half the money.

“My friend said he would pay the other half to see if I liked it after one month and then my sister paid for a time,” said Nivalter. “After that I stopped because I did not work and I did not want to ask for money from my mother because I knew that she already worked hard to support us.”

But Pedro Sena, Nivalter’s coach, had already spotted rare potential in his newest recruit and decided he could not allow him to drop out.

“I said I would pay his monthly fee, and that I believed he could go far in this sport,” he said. “Nivalter showed dedication and great interest in learning the techniques of the sport. He grabbed my attention, making me believe he could make the Brazilian juniors. After a month he was the best junior in Brazil.”

Despite being nearly 17 when he started formal training, Nivalter soon began winning against much more experienced rivals. “I remember in my first competition I saw a girl dressed in the Brazilian uniform and I said to myself, ‘One day I’m going to represent Brazil’,” he recalled.

In 2007 he won bronze at the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro in the C1 500m sprint. The following year in Beijing he reached semi-finals in the 500m and 1,000m, an achievement he looks ready to improve on in London.

“My biggest dreams are to become an Olympic medallist and to see my mother recover, because she had an accident when a car hit her as she was going to work. After 10 days she left hospital but her head is no longer the same, it is muddled.”

Sena is confident that in 2012 Nivalter can make a genuine challenge for medals. “In London we will have the chance that we have longed for and dreamed of every day,” he said. “He will be one of the best in the world. There are few who make it as an Olympic athlete but he has got there with guts and not giving up, despite the odds.”

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