UC and AAC show support for student-athletes Catarina Costa and Camila Rebelo at Paris 2024

The University of Coimbra's (UC) Vice-Rector for External Relations and Alumni, João Nuno Calvão da Silva, the UC Pro-Rector for Sport, Filipa Godinho, and the President of the General Directorate of the Academic Association of Coimbra (AAC), Renato Daniel, met this Thursday (25th) in the Olympic Village with the two UC students who will be taking part in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. During the brief meetings with Catarina Costa (Judo / Faculty of Medicine) and Camila Rebelo (Swimming / Faculty of Medicine), they received the support of the University community in recognition of their sporting careers and their contribution to the international status of the UC in the field of sport.

Catarina Costa will be the first UC student to compete at the Paris Olympic Games, which officially begin tomorrow (26 July) and run until the 11th of August. The AAC judoka, who will be making her second Olympic appearance (she finished 5th in Tokyo 2020), will compete in the women's -48kg category on Saturday (27 July).

Camila Rebelo will make her Olympic debut on Thursday, the 1st of August, competing in the women's 200m backstroke.

In addition to these two Olympians, three other students from the University of Coimbra have qualified for the Paralympic Games, to be held in the French capital between 28 August and 8 September: Diogo Cancela (Para Swimming / Faculty of Sciences and Technology), Tomás Cordeiro (Para Swimming / Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences) and Telmo Pinão (Para Cycling / Faculty of Sports Sciences and Physical Education).

These five Olympic and Paralympic student-athletes are part of the University of Coimbra's High Performance Support Programme (PAAR-UC), the most visible component of the work done at the institution in recent years to promote sport, physical activity, and well-being.

The main objective of PAAR-UC — which involved 34 UC students in 2023/24 — is to promote the balance between academic life and high-performance sport, offering students the added value of the different areas of knowledge at UC to support and improve the conditions for training and preparation for high-level competition. The measures range from academic support (choice of timetables and courses, and the possibility of taking more courses in a particular season) to facilitating access to training facilities and monitoring and follow-up of sporting practice.

This academic year, the University of Coimbra had 261 student athletes and more than 5,000 people from the academic community participating in physical and sports activities promoted by UC Sport.