Vittoria Lopes

Regularly one of the first athletes out of the water, Vittoria Lopes has built a reputation of racing from the front.

The Brazilian’s swim pedigree should perhaps come as no surprise as her mother, Helda Lopes, raced in the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City while her cousin, Luiz Altamir Melo, swam for Brazil at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

Vittoria had the perfect person to encourage her into the water at a young age and took up swimming at four-years-old. However, she drifted away from the pool when she went to college and largely stayed away from sport until a friend suggested they do a triathlon together. That was in 2014 and Vittoria has not looked back since.

Her rapidly improving results saw her take the silver medal at the 2019 Pan American Games along with gold in the Mixed Relay.

In the same year she also collected a gold medal in the women’s team event at the 2019 Military World Games and a bronze in the individual. She was fourth at the Tokyo test event.

Vittoria recovered from a stress fracture to her tibia that left her unable to run for three months in 2020 to represent Brazil at the Tokyo Olympics and finished 28th.

She has gained a reputation for sporting excellence in Brazil and was named Triathlete of the Year by the Brazilian Olympic Committee in 2017 and received the Ayrton Senna Sport Merit Award from the city council of Fortaleza in 2019.

Vittoria took part in Super League Triathlon Jersey 2019 and finished tenth and was a big part of the Eagles team in supertri in 2022.

Arguably the biggest result of her career came in 2023 when she won the famous Escape From Alcatraz triathlon.

Lopes was one of the leaders out of the swim again at the Olympics in Paris in 2024, and finished the race in 25th.