Gabrieli Pessanha
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Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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About Us
Gabrieli Pessanha was born on August 08, 2000, in the famous Cidade de Deus neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, known by the Northern Hemisphere population by way of the famous movie “The City of God” (2002) film, which was based on the history of this region.
During her infancy, Gabrieli played a variety of extra-curricular, recreational sports such as football (soccer), ballet, and judo, though none of which competitively.
In 2010 a local BJJ athlete named Marcio de Deus started coaching free jiu-jitsu classes in the neighborhood, as a way of helping the community’s children remain active outside the school schedule and away from criminality while their parents were away, working. At the time when Marcio started offering his services, Gabrieli was not too impressed with grappling, as she saw the close contact nature of this sport as inappropriate.
Although Pessanha did not fancy jiu-jitsu, most of her football buddies started practicing BJJ with Marcio regularly, and she found herself going to class with them, remaining on the outside, watching and waiting for them to finish so they could go out and play. After a few sessions on the stands, Gabrieli finally accepted an invitation by de Deus to participate in class, she was 11 years old at the time and much to her surprise, she enjoyed it.
Coach Marcio de Deus was a powerful influence on Gabrieli from the very get-go and the person responsible for Pessanha’s very first gi, which, although old and used, made a world of difference for Gabrieli who started competing soon after.
Pessanha’s aptitude for BJJ was obvious from the start as she began winning local and national level tournaments such as her first Brazilian title in 2013 (juvenile, orange belt division). Although successful and seeming to have a bright future ahead in this sport, her desire to pursue jiu-jitsu as a career would come from her shortcomings. In 2016, Gabrieli’s IBJJF Pan American title run fell through to a hard loss that forced Pessanha to look inwards and assess where she wanted to go from there, as well as how far she was willing to push herself to achieve those goals.
After the aforementioned loss in 2016, Gabrieli became more focused and ambitious, opting to turn towards professionalism. Her work-rate led to her first IBJJF Grand Slam win in 2018 when she conquered the Brazilian Nationals, European Open, Pan, and World Championship as a purple belt.
Gabrieli’s many outstanding achievements in the lower belt divisions of the sport led coach Mauricio de Deus to promote Pessanha to black belt in June 2019, at the age of 18, this way becoming one of the youngest professional black belts in the world.
