Photo: Nadine Oliverr via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
Vegan setter Macris Carneiro has won an Olympic bronze medal with Brazil after they beat Türkiye 3-1 (25-21, 27-25, 22-25, 25-15) in the women's volleyball bronze medal match at South Paris Arena 1 on Saturday, August 10.
Brazil bounced back from their only defeat of the tournament, a semi-final loss to the United States, with captain Gabi Guimarães scoring a match-high 28 points and veteran middle blocker Thaisa Menezes adding 17 in her final match for the national team, Volleyball World reports. Melissa Vargas scored 26 for Türkiye.
It's back-to-back Olympic podiums for Brazil after silver in Tokyo, and for Macris it's a second Olympic medal, both won on plants. The 35-year-old has been one of Brazil's best setters for a decade and was named best setter in the Brazilian Superliga four seasons running.
Nicknamed the "Fada Vegana" (vegan fairy), Macris went vegan at the end of 2016, mainly because of the suffering of animals. She made the switch in one go after reading the research and talking to specialists, and was inspired by another Brazilian setter, 2012 Olympic champion Fernandinha, who is also vegan. She told Folha Vitória the benefits showed up quickly (translated from Portuguese):
I recover better from tiring training sessions and games, and my muscle pain has decreased.
She is one of a long list of vegan athletes at these Games, according to Viva!.
Paris has been good to plant-powered athletes. Novak Djokovic won Olympic gold at 37, vegan fencer Vivian Kong won épée gold for Hong Kong and Eleanor Harvey won Canada's first-ever Olympic fencing medal, while the organizers made 60% of the food for spectators plant-based.
No meat, no problem.