Boy who lost his arm attacked by a tiger becomes famous in swimming

Summary
Vrajamany Rocha, who lost an arm at the age of 11 after being bitten by a tiger, overcame the trauma and became a Paralympic swimmer, racking up Brazilian titles and dreaming of representing Brazil at the Paralympics.

It is said that when we go through traumatic situations, our brain can simply erase what happened. This wasn’t really the case with Vrajamany Rocha. Today, aged 23, he remembers in detail the accident he suffered at the age of 11, when he was bitten by a tiger in a zoo in Paraná and lost an arm. Interestingly, few of the memories he describes relate to the physical impact the accident caused him.

My father came, helped me, hit the tiger, but the tiger didn’t care. ‘Dad, they’re going to arrest you,'” he recalls.

The boy’s concern was well-founded. A few days later, the Paraná State Prosecutor’s Office requested the opening of an investigation against his father for assault and battery, which resulted in an open conviction. However, Vrajamany does not blame him for what happened and is pleased that no more serious sentence was imposed. The young man admits that he has no particular feelings about the accident, even if this episode completely marked his life.

“In my routine, I don’t even have time to remember the accident,” he says. Currently, Vrajamany is a Paralympic swimmer and dreams of the day he will defend Brazil at the Paralympics. To achieve his goal, he trains every day, some to the point of vomiting from so much effort.

“Every Wednesday and Saturday this season, I trained until I vomited. I went out, I lay in the pool, when I managed to recover, I finished the training,” he remembers.

From accident to rise in sport

After losing her arm, doctors recommended Vrajanyy’s mother to play sports. The condition she imposed was that the boy’s choice was a sport without much risk of injury, therefore swimming. The boy joined an initiation club for Paralympic athletes.

It was in this training center, in São Paulo, his hometown, that Vrajamany’s eyes lit up for this sport. “I received a lot of admiration, that’s when I said: ‘I want to be world champion’,” he remembers. But it was only during the pandemic, initially training alone, that the young man saw his performances evolve to the point of rising in the athlete rankings.

“I studied and put together my training program. In 2020, I trained only at home. In 2021, I trained at a philanthropic association near my house. There was a trainer there who helped me for free too; he was an aquagym coach, but when he saw me training, he wanted to help me,” he says.

In addition to intense training, Vrajany invested in his diet, eating until he could no longer eat to overcome his 59 kg. At the end of 2021, Brazil’s first championship title arrived in the 200 meter medley category. He then received an invitation from Praia Clube and moved to Uberlândia (MG) to join the team. Since then, 13 other Brazilian championship titles have been won.

However, to compete in the Paralympics, Vrajamany believes he needs to shave a few seconds off his times at different distances. “The criteria to join the Brazilian team are the most competitive in the world. The Brazilian team is the most difficult in the world to join because there are fewer places in the Paralympics. You have to be among the six best in the world in an event to be part of the team.”