Danielle Zangrando

Personal information

Full name

Danielle Zangrando

Nationality

Brazil

Born

25 July 1979 (age 37)
São Paulo, Brazil

Height

1.62 m (5 ft 4 in)

Weight

57 kg (126 lb)

Sport

Judo

Event(s)

57 kg

Club

Santos FC Judô

Coached by

Paulo Duarte

Medal record

Women's judo
Representing Brazil
World Championships
	1995 Chiba	56 kg
Pan American Games
	2007 Rio de Janeiro	57 kg
	1995 Mar de Plata	56 kg
	1999 Winnipeg	57 kg

Danielle Zangrando (born July 25, 1979 in São Paulo) is a retired Brazilian judoka who competed in the women's lightweight category. She picked up a total of thirty medals in her career, including three from the Pan American Games (1995, 1999, and 2007), and a bronze from the 1995 World Judo Championships in Chiba, Japan, and also appeared in the 57-kg class in two editions of the Olympic Games (1996 and 2004). Growing up in Santos, Zangrando took up judo at the age of 5 following her brother to the dojo of sensei Paulo Duarte. Throughout most of her sporting career, Zangrando trained under Duarte as a full-fledged member of the judo squad for Santos FC Judô.

As a 16-year-old neophyte to the sport, Zangrando reached the pinnacle of her judo career at the 1995 World Judo Championships in Chiba, Japan, where she became the first ever Brazilian female to pick up a bronze medal in the lightweight category. Zangrando's remarkable result marked her official debut on the Brazilian team to compete in the same division at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Being inexperienced to the senior stint, Zangrando succumbed her opening match to an ippon and a tsurikomi goshi (lifting and pulling hip throw) assault from Hungary's Maria Pekli. She managed to collect another bronze in the 57-kg division at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but missed a chance to campaign for her 2000 Olympic bid due to spinal disc herniation, nearly reaching her early retirement from judo.

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