Strong Brazilian Swimming Squad To Attend South American Championships

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, February 22. THE Brazilian Swimming Federation is sending a strong squad of 28 athletes — 14 men and 14 women — to next month’s South American Games in Chile, based on performances at the Brazil Open last December.

At the top of the roster is sprinter Bruno Fratus, looking to find his way back into international racing after not making the 2013 world championship team. Fratus swam a 21.80 in the 50 free last month, which signals a return to form for the 2012 Olympian. Nicholas dos Santos, another rising star on the men’s team, will race in Chile as well.

The breaststroke trio of Felipe Silva, Felipe Lima and Tales Cerdeira will race in Santiago next month, as will backstroker Leonardo de Deus and former NCAA champion Nicolas Oliveira.

Update: A previous version of this article stated that Cesar Cielo was tapped to compete in the South American Games, but according to information received by Swimming World, Cielo was granted a waiver to miss the meet. In his place, the federation added Thiago Pereira to the list. Felipe Silva was also granted permission to not attend the meet, and Henrique Barbosa will swim in his place.

On the women’s side, Etienne Medeiros, Daynara Paula and Graciele Herman will look to bring some prominence to women’s swimming in Brazil with top performances. Though Brazil has yet to find a medal in pool swimming in recent years, they can celebrate the star power of Poliana Okimoto, the 2013 Swimming World Magazine open water swimmer of the year. Okimoto is not on the list of athletes for the South American Games.

Full list of Brazil team:

Men:
Henrique Barbosa
Tales Cerdeira
Leonardo de Deus
Bruno Fratus
Lucas Kanieski
Felipe Lima
Marcos Oliveira
Nicolas Oliveira
Thiago Pereira
Matheus Santana
Nicholas Santos
Fernando Santos
Fernando Silva
Thiago Simon

Women:
Nathalia Almeida
Carolina Bilich
Natalia de Luccas
Julia Gerotto
Graciele Hermann
Jessica Knight
Manuella Lyrio
Alessandra Marchioro
Juliana Marin
Etienne Medeiros
Larissa Oliveira
Daynara Paula
Pamela Souza
Beatriz Travalon

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