There’s no team that can beat the dominant force in South American volleyball, the Brazilian women’s volleyball team, which leads the South American Olympic Qualifier standings as it competes for a spot in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
The team has been in the spotlight since the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where it won a bronze medal, bringing greater visibility to women’s sports, particularly volleyball. The prestige earned by the athletes extends beyond the competitions, as they have become role models for young women, helping attract new audiences to the sport, and fostered a new generation of players and fans.
Brazilian female athletes have become a source of inspiration
If the Brazilian national team is currently experiencing a period of success and visibility, it is due to the fact that there is a balance within the team, with two generations: one with proven experience, such as Gabi Guimarães, who serves as a great role model for the sport’s new fans; and another with rapidly emerging young talents, such as Julia Kudiess and Helena Wenk, who have already shown great potential to represent Brazil in upcoming competitions.
There is also a strong sense of identification, which is not exclusive to men’s soccer, in which players like Neymar often inspire boys to pursue a career on the field. Brazilian women’s volleyball is experiencing a similar moment: players like Gabi Guimarães and Rosamaria are becoming, for a new generation of girls, the same kind of icons that soccer stars have represented for boys for decades.
This visibility and sense of identification grows alongside the space that women’s sports are carving out in the media, allowing these athletes to reach younger audiences more easily than previous generations.
And the symbolic idea of “passing the baton” plays out on the court, during the matches. When a veteran athlete makes room for younger, up-and-coming players—such as Gabi Guimarães, guiding younger players at crucial moments during the games. This is a cycle that has been repeating itself since the pioneers of Brazilian volleyball, ensuring that, even when an athlete retires from the sport, the legacy she leaves behind lives on in the new generations coming up behind her.
The Rise in Sports Participation
The growing popularity of women’s volleyball is also evident in the increase in social projects that aim to make the sport more accessible to everyone. “Inspiração Esportiva“, a program run by the Educational, Sports, and Social Association of Brazil (AEESB), is an example of an initiative that offers free volleyball and soccer classes at 21 centers located across northern, northeastern, and central of Minas Gerais
From this perspective, the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBV) invests in developing its youth base through VivaVôlei, the association’s main social responsibility project, which is currently active in 15 Brazilian states and has reached approximately 200,000 children since its creation. The program uses materials and methodologies created by the CBV itself to introduce children to volleyball on adapted courts, demonstrating that development is the result of consistent effort and is not limited solely to the results of the adult national team.
Engagement with the public takes place both on and off social media
It is also worth noting how social media has brought young female audiences ever closer to these iconic figures in sports. It is through digital platforms that female athletes share videos of their training routines and games, bringing fans closer to them and dispelling the myth that elite athletes are unapproachable – this encourages girls to become increasingly interested in the sport.
However, the connection with the public is also evident outside of social media. With the recent launch of the women’s national team uniform collection inspired by “The Powerpuff Girls” — an unprecedented collaboration between the Brazilian Volleyball Confederation (CBV) and Warner Bros. Discovery — the sport incorporates a strong pop culture reference,appealing to a world familiar to many children. In addition to the implicit significance beyond the symbolism behind the choice of the cartoon , and according to a statement by CBV Business Director Henrique Netto Silva to Globo Esporte:
“This cartoon totally connects with our collection, which features powerful women. We want to launch more and more pieces that tell stories and draw on cultural references—pieces that can be worn as a form of self-expression”
Henrique Netto Silvato
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The article above was edited by Ana Clara Bezson Dalla Costa.
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