Piedade Coutinho

Piedade Coutinho Azevedo (Tavares) da Silva (May 2, 1920 – October 14, 1997) was an Olympic freestyle swimmer from Brazil, who competed at three Summer Olympics for her native country. She was in three Olympic finals.

Background Born Piedade Coutinho Azevedo, she changed her name to Piedade Coutinho Tavares when she married.

The first mass participation of women was at a crossing in 1924 in São Paulo; eight swimmers from the German club Estela participated in it. The first exclusively women's competitions occurred in 1930 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

In 1935, the Brazilian Championship and the South American Championship, in which Coutinho participated and first appeared on the international scene, were held in Rio de Janeiro. Both were the first with women's events. Coutinho had started training in 1934 at a newly opened pool at the Clube de Regatas Guanabara. For her, however, the 400-metre freestyle final was not a cause for celebration. In that year, she had done an exceptional 5:20.3, sufficient for Olympic silver medal. But poor conditions of travel to Europe, room and board, and the loss of form for going several days without training because of the long journey had its price. This was typical of Brazilian sport in those days; similar conditions also cost Maria Lenk and Manuel dos Santos medals. She also finished 4th in the 200-metre freestyle. At 32 years old in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, she swam in the 400-metre freestyle but did not reach the final.

After professional swimming After leaving competitive swimming, Coutinho was director of swimming in the Botafogo club. She also began a process of recovery for disabled people. This interest emerged during the 1936 Olympics when she visited a Berlin hospital that through swimming, promoted the recovery of disabled children. In the late '50s, she campaigned for the construction of Home Recovery of Infantile Paralysis, where she developed water activities. She continued this work in Portugal, where she lived for eight years, and also in Brasilia.

In 1983, Coutinho returned to the Club de Regatas Guanabara, where she began teaching competitive swimming daily, teaching classes to friends and practicing painting; her hobby.

Piedade Coutinho died on October 14, 1997. Her fifth place in 1936 remained as the best women's Olympic placement of Brazil until 1964, when Aída dos Santos was fourth in the high jump. In the Pan American Games, a Brazilian woman won an individual medal in swimming in 1971, with Lucy Burle in the 100m butterfly. In the Olympics, Brazil had to wait 56 years for another woman to become a finalinst; Joanna Maranhão in the 400m medley in 2004. Coutinho had the most participation of Brazilian swimmers in the Olympics, participating in three gamestied with Maranhão and Fabiola Molina.