Jane Karla Gogel

Started: She began playing Para table tennis at age 28. She took up archery at age 39, in 2014. (olimpiadatododia.com.br, 24 May 2019; Athlete, 01 Jun 2016) Reason: She tried wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball before taking up Para table tennis. "I always joke that it was love at first racket strike. I saw that Para sport was not a social sport, it was high performance. It's courage and will, and I saw how strong the other impaired athletes were, how very well prepared they were. And I said, 'That's what I want to do'." She later got involved in archery after she was told she had to relocate from her home in Goias, Brazil, in order to train with the national Para table tennis team. "Table tennis was a big passion, my sport at heart, but it was very difficult once I was told I had to leave my family. I said no, but I looked for another sport that I could do in Goias and with which I could qualify for the Paralympics again. I had never seen that sport [archery], but I tried it. I hit the target only a few times but I felt that it was the sport I would do." (olimpiadatododia.com.br, 24 May 2019) Ambition: To win a medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (Athlete, 27 Aug 2024) Awards: In 2023 she was named Female Compound Para Archer of the Year in the Americas by World Archery. (worldarcheryamericas.com, 23 Jan 2024) In 2022 she was named Para Archer of the Year by the Brazilian Paralympic Committee [CPB]. (esportegoiano.com.br, 09 Feb 2023) She was flag bearer for Brazil at the closing ceremony of the 2011 Parapan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico. (Facebook page, 14 May 2020) She carried the Parapan American flame ahead of the 2007 Parapan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on its way through Goias, Brazil. (olimpiadatododia.com.br, 24 May 2019) Additional Info: TABLE TENNIS TO ARCHERY After competing in table tennis at two Paralympic Games and winning multiple gold medals in the sport at the Parapan American Games, she began competing in Para archery and non-Para archery in 2015. Several months later she won gold in archery at the 2015 Parapan American Games in Toronto, ON, Canada, and then qualified for the 2016 Paralympic Games in her new sport. "I think it is very difficult that an athlete could win Parapan American Games gold medals in two different sports and in such a short time. You cannot abandon a dream. If it's not working, then do something else, but you have to keep on going. Somehow the universe will take you where you want to go." (istoedinheiro.com.br, 20 Jan 2020; olimpiadatododia.com.br, 24 May 2019)

Sporting Relatives: Her daughter Leticia Lacerda represented Brazil in Para table tennis at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru. (olimpiadatododia.com.br, 18 Aug 2019)