Pregnant 2012 Olympic Champion Sarah Menezes announces career break

Olympic Champion Sarah Menezes revealed last week that she is becoming a mother: "I live a dream, to be a mother". The announcement was made last Friday, on her insta account, along with a photo with her fiancé 2013 World Champion Loic Pietri. Sarah Menezes herself is London’s 2012 Olympic Champion who decided to have a break in her judo career to fulfill her dream of becoming a mother.

The couple is excited and happy when announcing the good news and the break that she will take in her career to dedicate herself to her illusion of being a mother.

Menezes posted: I think this is one of the most important posts I'm going to do here! I take a break from my career as an athlete to live a dream: to be a mother. Just over two months ago, my fiancé Loïc Pietri and I received the news of our expected pregnancy. We are very happy.”

Alongside the announcement of her pregnancy and the hiatus from her competitive career, Sarah thanked the Brazilian Judo Confederation (CBJ) and Flamengo, her current club, for their support.

“I want to thank everyone for their support. They were happy with us.”

In April 2020, Sarah had expressed during an interview her desire to be a mother, at that time she said that she would like to start a family and also spoke about retiring from judo.

As part of the Brazilian judo team since the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Sarah Menezes was strong the her U48kg category for a decade and peaked when she won Brazil's first Women's Judo Olympic title in London 2012, plus three medals bronze in senior world championships (Tokyo 2010, Paris 2011 and Rio 2013) despite the severe competition from Japan in this division. Both Sarah as Loic reached the podium at the World Championships in Rio in 2013. 

Menezes was junior world champion in 2008 and Paris in 2009 and took four Pan-American titles. After her third Olympic participation in Rio in 2016, she decided to move up the weight category.

With the desired break of her sports career, Sarah will stop trying to qualify at her fourth Olympic Games. Father Loic Pietri stepped up from U81kg to U90kg in 2017 but never reached the success he had U81kg. He claimed gold at the European Open in Odivelas early 2019 but never reached the same level as he had until 2015 when he reached his second World Championships final. He won the first in Rio, lost the second in Astana to Japanese Takanori Nagase. Also his everlasting opponent Avtandili Tchrikishvili (GEO) couldn’t yet impress in his new category U90kg. They all share it is not so easy to step up a weight category. Stepping up to parenthood will not be a cookie either but we’re confident the couple can give the baby all values of life. With approx 250 days to go for the Olympic Games, the new born can already enjoy the Games.