Name: Debora Menezes
Country: Brazil
Sport: Para Taekwondo
Previous Paralympic experience: Tokyo 2021
Social Media: Instagram
Who is Debora Menezes
Ranked No. 3 in the world in her category, Menezes built herself into a world championship contender following a breakthrough performance at the 2019 World Para Taekwondo Championships.
Menezes, a former futsal player who took up taekwondo as a hobby during college in 2013, left Turkey that year as a world champion, the first Brazilian woman ever to do so, defeating Guljonoy Naimova of Uzbekistan.
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The duo would meet again two years later in the Paralympic final during the Tokyo Games with Naimova flipping the script, sending Menezes home with a silver medal and spawning a bit of a rivalry between the two.
A three-time CPB Best Para Taekwondo Athlete of the Year winner, her performance over that two-year span made Menezes well known in her home nation, earning her sponsorships and awards. “I received a great welcome by my fellow Brazilians. It is always an incredible feeling to represent Brazil and it’s even better when we do so and are able to get medals and titles,” Menezes told the International Paralympic Committee in 2019.
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The other constant during that time was her partner, Maya.
Menezes’ Instagram account is full of encouraging posts from Maya celebrating their love, relationship milestones and copious amounts of support for Menezes’ athletic pursuits.
Heading into Paris, Maya is right there once again supporting her beloved as she looks for another Paralympic podium.
“This world is small, close to everything you are yet to conquer. We will always be here vibrating, cheering and yelling for everyone to hear that you are our champion,” Maya wrote last month. “Go there and give your best performance.”
Debora Menezes at the Paris Summer Paralympics
Menezes is certainly a podium favorite heading into her second Paralympic Games, but reaching that goal likely means having to go kick-for-kick with defending gold medalist Naimova.
The Brazilian built plenty of momentum heading into the Paris Games with gold medals at the 2024 Pan Am Para Taekwondo Open Championships and the Rio Open, but she hasn’t won a tournament featuring both herself and Naimova in the time between Paralympic Games.
The most recent meeting between the two came in May in the finals of the Asian Para Taekwondo Open Championships. That match, a close victory by Naimova, may serve as a preview of the gold medal match in Paris, but it also showcased the dedication Menezes put in over the last three years to secure the honor that eluded her in Tokyo.
Now, Menezes looks for another chance to become the first Brazilian woman to win Paralympic gold in taekwondo.
