Women athletes find purpose—for themselves and the greater good

Changing the next generation

For Silva, realizing her dream of representing Brazil at the Rio 2016 Olympics moved her to reflect on what her life could have been. At age 11, she was hanging out on the streets, trying cigarettes, drugs, and alcohol until her mother found out and moved her to a different school, where her life changed when she picked up judo.

“I realized I could be good at judo, so I started using my best Aline in sports. If it wasn’t for sports, I wouldn’t be here,” she says.

After two years of training, she switched to wrestling, becoming the first Brazilian to win a medal in the World Wrestling Championships.

With the hope of “giving meaning” to her story, she set up Mempodera, a non-profit in Sao Paulo, to give girls and young women sporting role models, facilities, and a positive environment.

“When I started judo, friends and family told me not to as it’s a masculine sport. When I became a good athlete, I heard ‘you’re pretty for a wrestler,’” she says, adding she wants to remove the gender norms that act as barriers to girls taking up sports like wrestling.

She hopes the organization can teach respect, trust, and teamwork while providing a sense of belonging.

In the lead-up to Tokyo 2020, with training hampered due to COVID-19 restrictions, Silva again reflected on her sporting journey. Growing up, she lived in a low-income community and, even after becoming an adult, she had problems managing financial matters.

“For me, money was always about struggle. Sometimes I knew I could have been doing better [with it],” she says.

With a desire for change, she drafted a social impact business model based on providing loans and financial education for budding entrepreneurs on low incomes. That plan is now becoming a reality thanks to the experience, insight, and contacts gained from her WABN mentor and mentees.

Learning from experience

Hirosawa found purpose during competition, driving her to set up a yoga-centric business empowering people to gain balance and fulfillment in their lives.

The Asia and Oceania water ski champion is part of the first cohort of the WABN Japan Academy, the inaugural country chapter of global WABN. The Academy aims to support women athletes to become leaders in society through entrepreneurship. Since January 2022, Hirosawa has been learning practical skills for business from EY Japan professionals and exploring how she can leverage her lessons from her sport.

When training for the Water Ski World Championships in 2011 and 2012, her focus was on jumping more than 50 meters, but it became all-consuming.

“I thought there was no point if I couldn’t do it, and I didn’t have any compassion for myself. My performance dropped, but when I let go of the goal, I rallied, so I learned the relationship between the mental and physical,” she says.

Through the experience, she saw her early days in the sport in a new light. When she began water skiing at university, she aspired to be top on three levels: individual, team, and national. Despite achieving all three goals and going on to win at the Asia level, she “couldn’t gain confidence” and was “in an endless struggle.”

“I realized that even if I got a medal as a world athlete, it would not be enough,” she says. Now she hopes her yoga business can show people that simply doing their best enables them to feel good about themselves and contribute to society.

“I’ve always been interested in business but didn’t know where to start. When I heard about WABN, I knew I wanted to join,” she says.

Looking back on the program, she says she has gained not only skills and ideas but also renewed “mental focus” to help with her entrepreneurial journey.