Adriana Behar
(IOC)
Updated: 2007-07-25 20:17
Sydney, 25 September 2000, Games of the XXVII Olympiad. Adriana BEHAR of Brazil dives to dig the ball during the women's beach volleyball competition at Bondi Beach. Credit : Getty Images/Stephen Munday
Born: 14 February 1969
Birthplace: Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Nationality: Brazil
Sport: Volleyball
ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Sydney 2000
Athens 2004
AWARDS
Olympic medals:
Silver: 2
First Double Medalist in Beach Volleyball
Originally a figure skater, Adriana Behar switched to indoor volleyball when she was 16 years old and played professionally in Italy before turning to beach volleyball. In 1995 she teamed with Shelda Bede and the two soon became the leading pair in the world. They would subsequently win world championships in 1999 and 2001 and number one rankings in 2000, 2001 and 2004. They qualified for the Olympics in 2000 and made it to the final by winning four matches. They settled for silver medals when they lost in the final to local Australians Natalie Cook and Kerri Pottharst.
Four years later, at the 2004 Athens Games, Adriana Behar and Shelda defeated fellow Brazilians Sandra Pires and Ana Paula in the quarterfinals and Natalie Cook and her new partner Nicole Sanderson in the semifinals, before falling 17-21, 11-21 to Americans Kerri Walsh and Misty May in the final. The pair Behar/Shelda is the first one to earn more than one medal at the Olympics.
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