Bruna Alexandre will do double this summer competing in the Olympic Games and the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. The Brazilian, who had her right arm amputated due to thrombosis when she was six months old, will compete in the WD20 Women’s Doubles. At the Olympics she participated in the women’s team table tennis which she lost to South Korea.

‘It’s very difficult to qualify for both the Olympics and the Paralympics, so I’m trying to make the most of this experience,’ Alexandre told Olympics.com. Her Olympic debut followed a bronze medal in able-bodied table tennis at the 2023 Pan American Games and she was excited to compete alongside some of the sport’s modern greats. ‘It was my first Olympic Games here in Paris and it was a great experience to be with the best athletes in the world,’ she said.

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While Alexandre is now the first Brazilian athlete to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics, she is not alone in her achievement at international level – Australia’s Melissa Tapper and Poland’s Natalia Partyka return after competing in Olympic and Paralympic table tennis events at Tokyo 2020.

It was four-time Olympic champion and six-time Paralympic champion Natalia Partyka who inspired Alexandre after watching her play on YouTube at the age of 13 and after eight defeats to Partyka in her career, Alexandre finally beat her long-time idol last year.