For many years, ELAS+ has pursued gender and race equity in sports as a tool for social transformation, believing in and supporting girls and women. This is one of our areas of investment.
We were one of the organizations responsible for creating Women Win, a global women's fund dedicated to promoting the rights of women and girls through sport. We also created ELAS in Sport, one of our most recent initiatives, which was born with the mission of supporting sport among women and girls and ensuring that their skills are fostered.
The Tokyo Olympics were a landmark event, both because they were held during the biggest health crisis on the planet caused by Covid-19, and because almost 49% of the athletes were women.
In addition, this Olympics will go down in history for having the largest number of self-declared LGBTQIA+ athletes. According to the sports website OutSportes, which focuses on LGBTQIA+ sports and athletes, this year's games have 160 athletes who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and non-binary.
Of the 309 Brazilian athletes in Japan, 145 were women. And of the 21 medals, 9 were won by women. Highlights include Rebeca Andrade, gold and silver medalist in artistic gymnastics, and Rayssa Leal, just 13 years old, silver medalist in skateboarding, a new discipline in this edition.
As Brazil takes part in the Paralympics, it's worth highlighting Beth Gomes, the oldest athlete at the Tokyo Paralympic Games, who at 56 thrilled us by winning the first gold medal of her career! And also the swimmer from Pernambuco, Carol Santiago, who, competing in the Paralympic Games for the first time, won three gold medals in the competition and also broke the Paralympic record in her category.
We believe in women and girls just as strongly as we believe that it's not enough to cheer - you have to support. ELAS+ congratulates all the athletes in the Brazilian delegation at the Olympic and Paralympic Games.