Poliana Okimoto was awarded the Female Athlete of the Year by the Brazilian Olympic Committee at a ceremony on Tuesday in Sao Paolo. She won over judoka Rafaela Silva and modern pentathlete Yane Marques.
The 30-year old Okimoto was arguably the open water swimmer of the year globally, having won the 10k gold medal at the World Championships, to which she added a silver in the 5k and a bronze in the 5km team event. That took this title over Silva, who was the 57kg judo World and Pan Am Champion in 2013, as well as over Marques, who was the Worlds silver medalist in the individual modern pentathlon (and matched to rank 2nd overall in the world).
Okimoto’s medals came after a disappointing 2012 Olympic result, where Okimoto passed out from dehydration and had to be pulled into a safety boat: a rather terrifying incident that at the time went largely unnoticed.
In her post-award speech, Okimoto said “I didn’t know how it would be tonight. I could say that the important thing is to compete, but that’s not true with athletes. We always want to win. I had very good, very worthy competitors, and I know that each is dedicated. Our life is difficult, we have the pressure of competition, and the two were both impressive.”
The winner of the men’s award was Jorge Zarif, a sailor.
