Giullia Penalber

Giullia Rodrigues Penalber de Oliveira (born 13 April 1992) is a Brazilian freestyle wrestler. She is the gold medalist in the women's 57kg event at the 2023 Pan American Games and the 2018 South American Games. She is also a two-time gold medalist in this event at the Pan American Wrestling Championships, reached the quarterfinals three times in the World Wrestling Championships, in the 2014, 2019 and 2021 editions, and finished 5th at the 2024 Olympic Games.

Career

Penalber competed in the 55kg event at the 2014 World Wrestling Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where she reached the quarterfinals. The following year, she competed in the 53kg event where she was eliminated in her first match by Lilya Horishna of Ukraine. In 2018, she competed in the 57kg event where she was eliminated in her second match by Grace Bullen of Norway. In 2019, she reached the quarterfinals in the 57kg event.

Penalber competed at several editions of the Pan American Games. In 2015, she represented Brazil without winning a medal and, at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, she won one of the bronze medals in the 57kg event.

In 2018, Penalber won the gold medal in the 57kg event at the South American Games held in Cochabamba, Bolivia. At the 2020 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Ottawa, Canada, she won the gold medal in the 57kg event. She also competed in the 2020 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament, also held in Ottawa, Canada, without qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She won one match and lost two matches and she did not advance to the semi-finals. She won the silver medal in her event at the 2021 Dan Kolov & Nikola Petrov Tournament held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In May 2021, she failed to qualify for the Olympics at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Sofia, Bulgaria. She won her first two matches but she then lost her match in the semi-finals against Mathilde Rivière of France. In October 2021, she was eliminated in her second match in the women's 57kg event at the World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway.

In 2022, Penalber competed in the 57kg event at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey. She won one of the bronze medals in her event at the 2022 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Acapulco, Mexico. A month later, Penalber also won one of the bronze medals in her event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2022 held in Rome, Italy. She won the gold medal in her event at the 2022 Tunis Ranking Series event held in Tunis, Tunisia.

She was eliminated in her first match in the 57kg event at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia. She won the silver medal in her event at the 2022 South American Games held in Asunción, Paraguay.

Penalber won the gold medal in the women's 57kg event at the 2023 Pan American Games held in Santiago, Chile. She defeated Hannah Taylor of Canada in her gold medal match. A few days later, she competed at the 2024 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Acapulco, Mexico hoping to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. She was eliminated in her first match.

At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, being ranked 11th in the world, she entered as the tournament's No. 7 seed. She beat Rckaela Aquino, from Guam, in the first round, but in the quarterfinals, she faced Moldovan Anastasia Nichita, who was the 2022 world champion, 2023 world runner-up and current No. 2 in the world, losing 5–0, and was awaiting the possibility of a repechage. After the Moldovan qualified for the final, Penalber entered the repechage, where she would face the German Sandra Paruszewski, two-time bronze medalist at the European Championships. Penalber won the fight and became the first Brazilian in history to reach a medal match in Olympic Wrestling. She lost to China's Kexin Hong in the bronze medal match, but finished in 5th place, the best placement in the country's history in the sport.

Personal life

Judoka Victor Penalber is her brother.

Before switching to wrestling, she also competed in judo and she won medals at several events, including the 2009 Pan American U20 Championships and the 2012 Brazilian U23 Championships.

Achievements