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Victor Alvares de Oliveira

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Victor Alvares de Oliveira
Born1996 or 1997 (age 27–28)
Sport
Country Cape Verde
SportFencing
WeaponFoil
Handright-handed[1]

Victor Alvares de Oliveira (born 1996 or 1997)[2] is a Cape Verdean foil fencer. He qualified to represent Cape Verde at the 2024 Summer Olympics.

Biography

[edit]

Alvares de Oliveira was born to a Cape Verdean father and a Spanish-Portuguese mother; he grew up in Reims, France, and has dual Cape Verdean-French citizenship.[3][4] According to Olympics.com, he grew up with severe asthma and thus spent "large portions of his formative years in the confines of paediatric wards."[3] He liked the sport of fencing growing up, but doctors give him little chance of ever being successful in the sport due to his condition.[3] However, he began competing in foil events nonetheless and still managed to perform well; he said that "I still had to do twice the effort of other athletes when we were doing exercises. But my asthma was getting better."[3]

Alvares de Oliveira, a member of the club Courbevoie Escrime,[5] rose through the fencing ranks and made the French national team.[3] He also ranked at one time in the top 20 globally for junior foil fencers.[6] He moved to Paris to train further in fencing, with the goal of ultimately reaching the Olympics.[3] In 2018, he contacted the Cape Verdean sports authorities with the intention of honoring his father's heritage by competing internationally for them.[3] He competed for them at the Fencing World Cup in 2019 and became the first-ever professional fencer for Cape Verde; he had the second-best placement among African foil fencers at the tournament.[3][5][7] He competed for Cape Verde at the Fencing Grand Prix in 2021, with hopes of qualifying for the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics, although he did not qualify, with a loss to Salim Heroui in the final.[3][6][8] Although unable to qualify for the Olympics that year, he participated at the African championships and won the silver medal.[9]

Alvares de Oliveira competed for Cape Verde at the 2022 African championships and at the 2023 World Fencing Championships, where in foil he placed 78th out of 177 participants.[3][10] He competed at the African Olympic qualifying tournaments in 2024, but finished sixth in foil due to an injury.[3] However, he was afterwards invited to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympics in foil on a universality selection.[11] He became the first Olympic fencer in Cape Verde's history.[3]

References

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  1. ^ "Alvares de Oliveria Victor". Fédération Internationale d'Escrime.
  2. ^ "In Paris 2024, fencing will push its frontiers". Francs Jeux. 26 June 2024.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l de Villiers, Ockert (6 June 2024). "Victor Alvares de Oliveira: "My plan was to establish fencing in Cape Verde to develop the sport for kids"". Olympics.com.
  4. ^ Liault, Yannis (15 July 2024). "JO. « Je vise l'or » clame l'escrimeur cap-verdien Victor Oliveira, en stage à Parthenay" [OJ. “I’m aiming for gold” proclaims Cape Verdean fencer Victor Oliveira, on training in Parthenay]. Ouest-France (in French).
  5. ^ a b "Esgrima: Victor Alvares de Oliveira representa Cabo Verde no Campeonato Africano" [Fencing: Victor Alvares de Oliveira represents Cape Verde at the African Championship]. Balai Cabo Verde (in Portuguese). 17 June 2022.
  6. ^ a b "Franco-cabo-verdiano Victor Oliveira vai ao Qatar em busca de mínimos para os Jogos Olímpicos" [Franco-Cabo-Verdiano Victor Oliveira goes to Qatar on the Minimum Bus for Olympic Games]. Expresso das Ilhas (in Portuguese). 11 March 2021.
  7. ^ "ESGRIMA: Victor Alvares "muito feliz" por ter representado Cabo Verde num mundial" [FENCING: Victor Alvares “very happy” to have represented Cape Verde in a world cup] (in Portuguese). RTC. 16 November 2019.
  8. ^ Gréno, Nicolas (25 March 2021). "Escrime : Victor Alvares de Oliveira en escale à Doha avant d'espérer voir Tokyo" [Fencing: Victor Alvares de Oliveira on a stopover in Doha before hoping to see Tokyo]. Sud Ouest (in French) – via archive.ph.
  9. ^ "Esgrima: Victor Alvares de Oliveira quer continuar a representar Cabo Verde em provas internacionais" [Fencing: Victor Alvares de Oliveira wants to continue representing Cape Verde in international competitions] (in Portuguese). RTC. 3 May 2021.
  10. ^ "Victor Alvares de Oliveira representa Cabo Verde no Mundial de Esgrima no Cairo" [Victor Alvares de Oliveira represents Cape Verde at the Fencing World Championship in Cairo]. Balai Cabo Verde (in Portuguese). 21 June 2023.
  11. ^ "Esgrima: Victor Alvares de Oliveira qualificado para os Jogos Olímpicos de Paris 2024" [Fencing: Victor Alvares de Oliveira qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games]. Expresso das Ilhas (in Portuguese). 17 May 2024.
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