Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Geisa Rafaela Arcanjo |
Born |
São Roque, São Paulo |
19 September 1991
Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
Weight | 92 kg (203 lb) |
Sport | |
Country | Brazil |
Sport | Athletics |
Event(s) | Shot put |
Updated on 5 February 2015. |
Geisa Rafaela Arcanjo (born 19 September 1991, in São Roque, São Paulo) is a Brazilian athlete. She was a finalist at the 2012 Summer Olympics, finishing seventh. Her personal best for the event is 19.02 metres. She was the 2012 gold medallist at the Ibero-American Championships in Athletics. Arcanjo initially won at the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics, but was disqualified for doping.
Born in São Roque, São Paulo, she started out in athletics by competing in the shot put and the discus throw. She made her debut for Brazil at the 2007 World Youth Championships in Athletics, competing in the discus. Her first international medal came in 2008, when she was the gold medallist in the shot put at the 2008 South American Youth Championships in Athletics. She also won the Brazilian youth titles in both the discus and shot. The following year she stepped up to the junior (under-19) level and had similar success, winning shot put gold and discus silver at the South American Junior Championships as well as a shot put bronze medal at the Pan American Junior Championships.
She began to focus on shot putting in 2010 and threw a Brazilian junior record of 17.11 m. She came fifth at the South American Games and fourth at the Ibero-American Championships. At the 2010 World Junior Championships in Athletics she won Brazil's first gold medal at the championships since 1994. However, her doping test came back positive for the banned diuretic Hydrochlorothiazide and she was later disqualified. Arcanjo said that the substance had entered her system through a green tea that she had been taking, unbeknownst to her coach. An initial judgement by the national athletics body (Confederação Brasileira de Atletismo) accepted the athlete's statement and gave her a warning rather than a ban. Brazil's sports court, Superior Tribunal de Justiça Desportiva, overturned this decision on these grounds, but upheld the warning due to the lack of enhancing impact that the substance would have on the athlete's performance. Arcanjo missed much of the 2011 season due to the length of the proceedings.