Gabriela shared us with her thoughts before the upcoming World Championship.

Gabriela, you take part at a great number of tournaments, but what do you thing are your main achievements?

I have been Armwrestling since 2000 when I was 12 years old because of another athlete who invited me. She said I looked strong (I used to do artistic gymnastics since I was 5 and I continued doing for 3 more years till 2003). To be honest, Armwrestling has almost none popularity in Brazil and I didnt even know it was a Sport, but I just accepted the invitation because I was too shy to say 'no'. In 3 weeks, I won a state Championship in senior class and 2 months later I got 2nd at nationals also in senior class.

I actually take part basically at WAF Worlds annually.... I got the chance to be at Armwars in 2012, A1 in 2015 and hopefully in Zloty Tour in 2016... But I can’t say any other Titles but my world ones. I got sixth world Titles in Junior class (3 right and 3 left) and 16 world Titles in senior class (8 each arm) totalizing 22 WAF world titles. Got few seconds and thirds as well...

What is the main point of your workouts? What should be a good sparring partner?

My training changes depending on the phase or time of the year I am at (if there’s tournament coming up or not and its importance). I got since mid-2012 the best coach and training partner I could ask for... he makes the difference because he knows me very well, respects my body responses to training and always pushes through my limits even when I don’t think I can do something, and I usually end up doing it successfully. Having someone that wants you to improve all the time, able to see your mistakes and weak points and willing to work on them is the best partner sparring. Sometimes when you are pulling it’s hard to actually see whatever it is you are doing right or wrong, so having someone to help with that but that keeps your style and technique comfortable, its great!

How do you warm up before competition? What is your mood before fights? Are you nervous? Who do you think are your toughest rivals?

My mood is usually pretty good and calm... I don’t like being nervous cause I feel it gets in my way of focusing on what really matters. If I’m trained and feeling good, there’s no reason to feel nervous before the fights. I love competing and I’m usually satisfied with my results unless I feel I could have done more before or during the fight (mainly before... trained more or something that could really change the result). If I lose because my opponent is better, I’m ok and I’ll be hungry to train more and more

For this Worlds I think I’ll have 3 hard women to beat if I want to be world champion again: Malin Klainsmith (Sweden), Victoria Voronina (Russia) and Brigitta Ivanfi (Hungary). I can say we might have some equal chances and I respect them a lot.

Off Worlds, I still want to beat Irina Makeeva