Ana Luiza Pires began her career in 2012 at a project jointly run by Klabin and the municipal government
 
Paraná, June 11, 2021 – Brazil hogged the limelight at the Pan American Artistic Gymnastics Championships, winning 11 medals, including the gold won by Ana Luiza Pires in the floor exercise routine. The gymnast, who is only 15, began her career in the initiation batch of the Talent School at the Artistic Gymnastics Training Center of Telêmaco Borba  (CTGA-TB) in 2012, a project run by the Paraná Gymnastics Federation with support from the municipal government of Telêmaco Borba and sponsorship from Klabin, which provides free training for girls aged between 5 and 14.
 
“The artistic gymnastics project works on two fronts: the social front, by providing education to children through sports, and the competition front, aimed at discovering athletes with the potential to excel in their respective disciplines,” said Uilson Paiva, Community Relations Manager at Klabin. “Ana Luiza is an inspiring example of the project’s potential.” Currently, 150 girls aged between 4 and 14 are in different batches of the project, which is free. The competition team has 20 athletes. Due to the pandemic, the project had to adapt to physical distancing and shifted the focus to online training. Using the hiatus, the project is moving to a new venue – the Péricles Pacheco da Silva gymnasium in Telêmaco Borba, popularly known as the Minicentro gymnasium. 
 
“We provide a great deal of encouragement to this sport, which starts with inclusion and could reach the high performance level, as in the case of Ana Luiza, who is a source of pride for our city,” said Fabrício Flores, the municipal secretary of Culture, Sports and Recreation.
 
After a period of training at the Artistic Gymnastics Training Center of Telêmaco Borba (CTGA-TB) in 2012, Ana Luiza moved to Curitiba, where she was admitted to the Center of Excellence in Artistic Gymnastics of Paraná (Cegin). Despite the intense training routine, she managed to adapt and evolve rapidly. At age 9, she participated in her first Brazilian Championships and has since been winning national and international awards.
“I am very happy to have represented Brazil in this competition and am proud of this achievement after so many difficulties, such as a spinal injury that prevented me from training for a year, but I thank my coaches for helping us stay focused and never give up,” said Ana Luiza Pires.
 

#GinasticaArtistica#PanAmericano#TelemacoBorba