User:Gwennire/Maria Reikdal

Maria Joaquina Cavalcanti Reikdal (Curitiba, born March 29 2008) is a Brazilian figure skater and artistic roller skater. She's the 2023 World Artistic Inline Skating junior champion and the 2021 silver medalist, the 2023 South American Inline Artistic Skating champion, three time national junior figure skating champio n (2021, 2022, 2023) and 2019 advanced novice champion as well as the three time artistic inline skating national champion (2021, 2022, 2023).

Personal life
Maria was put onto foster care at the age of six after neglectful and abusive behaviour from her biological family towards her and her siblings. At the orphanage, she suffered bullying from the other kids, as well as physical and verbal abuse from the carers for behaving in a feminine way despite being assigned male at birth. She was adopted, along with her two siblings, by Cleber Reikdal and Gustavo Uchoa Cavalcanti on December 4th, 2016. A few months before her ninth birthday, she came out as a transgender girl to her family and, shortly after, started to get psychological support at the Hospital das Clínicas de São Paulo's Research Institute's Transdisciplinary Ambulatory of Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation (AMTIGOS).

In 2020, Reikdal managed to legally change her name and her legal sex marker at her birth certificate, after a three-year legal battle. That way, she satisfied the skating federations' requirements to skate at the women's category for pre-pubescent transgender girs at the time.

Her journey gained national attention after experiencing discrimination in 2019 during the national and South American artistic roller skating championships. Maria became a symbol of the fight against prejudice and was invited to appear in a music video for singer Pabllo Vittar.

In 2020, Maria successfully had her documents rectified, a process started in 2018, meeting the requirements of the roller skating confederations to compete in the female category.

Early career
Maria began skating at eight, influenced by her parents, both artistic roller skating coaches. She managed to place second on her age category, at the girls' segment, at the Brazilian Artistic Skating Championships in 2019, which would place her a spot at the 2019 South American Artistic Skating Championships, However, she was not called up for the due to her documents not being updated to reflect her name and gender. Her family had to go to court to get authorization for her to compete. Although granted permission, she faced discrimination, such as not being allowed to wear the official team outfit or use the bathroom at the event. She finished 13th in the competition after falling four times during her performance. In Brazil, minors can only go through their name changed through a judge's decision.

Encouraged by her father and coach, Gustavo Cavalcanti, Maria decided to focus on ice skating, training on inline skates when ice was unavailable, aiming for the 2026 Winter Olympics. She won gold in the advanced novice category (10-15 years) at the 2019 Brazilian Ice Skating Championship with a score of 50.70.

2021-2022 season: International artistic inline skating debut
Maria joined the Gaucho Skating Federation to compete nationally in artistic roller skating for the Arte e Movimento club. At 13, she moved to the junior category and won both the 2020 and 2021 national championships, earning a spot on the national team for the world championship. She became the youngest skater on the national team and finished as a silver medallist at the World Artistic Skating Championship in Asuncion, Paraguay, with a total score of 102.99 points. This achievement made her the first medalist from Curitiba in a World Artistic Skating Championship.

In December 2021, she won the junior title at the Brazilian Ice Skating Championship.

2022-2023 season: International figure skating debut
Maria began 2022 with another national championship win in artistic roller skating, earning a spot in the South American Roller Sports Games, which she declined to attend a training camp in Italy. In July 2022, she won gold at the CBDG Brazilian Championship and the Latin American Interclub Open. She was the first Brazilian-born athlete to compete in the junior women's category in an ISU-sanctioned event and the first transgender skater to compete internationally in junior ice skating, finishing 33rd in Latvia and 39th in Italy.

Despite facing harassment and discrimination from a CBDG official, Maria resumed roller skating in January 2023.

2023-2024 season: World Junior artistic inline champion
In February, Maria returned to roller skating competition, winning the 2023 Brazilian Artistic Roller Skating Championship and earning another spot in the South American Roller Sports Games. In April, she won her first South American title in junior inline artistic skating. In July, she won another junior title at the CBDG Brazilian Championship, qualifying for the Junior Grand Prix stages in Linz and Osaka.

In September, Maria became the junior inline world champion at the 2023 World Artistic Skating Championship in Ibagué, Colombia, with a total score of 106.66 points. She expressed gratitude for the support she received and discussed her future plans, emphasizing the ongoing challenges of dealing with prejudice in sports.

Em setembro de 2023, Maria sagrou-se campeã mundial na categoria inline júnior no Campeonato Mundial de Patinação Artística de 2023 da World Skate em Ibagué, na Colômbia. A atleta conquistou o feito após alcançar um total de 106,66 pontos no somatório dos programas, sendo 37,12 no curto, segmento no qual se classificou na segunda posição e 69,54 no livre, com o qual garantiu a vitória, totalizando 10,72 pontos de vantagem sobre a vice-campeã, a argentina Giulia Scamarda. Em entrevista ao canal televisivo colombiano Vip, a jovem agradeceu à torcida e declarou que, para ela, o ouro no Mundial não significava apenas o primeiro lugar, mas era também consequência de muito treino e do apoio constante de sua família, amigos e de todos que a acompanharam durante seu percurso. Para a CNN Brasil, a patinadora confirmou planos para treinar nos Estados Unidos por um mês, tempo após o qual ela, juntamente aos seus técnicos, decidirão em que modalidade focar, ou mesmo se Reikdal continuará a disputar competição de patinação alguma, pois, segundo ela, “Não é fácil lidar com preconceito no esporte, porque muitas pessoas não aceitam pessoas trans e me julgam, dizendo que não vou conseguir. Isso ainda me abala às vezes. Mesmo que agora esteja bem melhor, ainda existe esse preconceito muito grande”.