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DAIANE DOS SANTOS
Daiane Garcia dos Santos (born on February 10, 1983 in Porto Alegre) is Brazil's most successful female gymnast
ever. She has two floor skills named after her called "Dos Santos" — the piked and the laid-out double Arabian somersaults. Daiane
dos Santos is of Dutch descent on her mother side.
At the comparatively old age of 20, she won the world title on her specialty apparatus, the floor, in the 2003 World Artistic
Gymnastics Championships Anaheim, California. Renowned for her difficult tumbling, Dos Santos is unusual in gymnastics because she did
not take up the sport until the age of 11.
Dos Santos's most famous routine's music is called "Brasileirinho" (by Waldir Azevedo) which she used for major achievements during the
2004–2005 season.
She represented Brazil in the 2004 Summer Olympics and qualified to the floor final here, where she debuted the Dos Santos II,
a double Arabian in layout position. No other woman has performed it, but sadly for Daiane she stepped out of the floor area whilst
doing so, placing fifth. Dos Santos came back in December 2004 to become the World Cup floor champion, beating
Catalina Ponor and Cheng Fei into 2nd and 3rd place.
She attempted to defend her World Championship title in 2005 in Melbourne, but a fall in the finals took her out of the medals
and left the way clear for Alicia Sacramone of the USA who won. Daiane finished 7th and
said goodbye to her Brasileirinho routine.
In 2006, Dos Santos with a brand new routine won her first gold medal under the new Artistic Gymnastics' score system Code of Points
in a Moscow's leg of FIG's World Cup.
Daiane decided to attend the 2006 World Championship, but she confirmed that she wouldn't use her Dos Santos II for a while. She
placed 4th after minimal problems on her tumblings and new requirements for this new score system.
Dos Santos qualified for Brazil's World Cup Final 2005/2006 on Floor Exercise. She was still #1 at Floor's World Ranking.
With some major absences (US and Romanian teams), Brazilians increased their chances for better places which became real by the end of the
competition.
Daiane started on Uneven Bars placing 7th. The next day, at the Floor Exercise Final, she had her best chance. Despite strong
competitors like Cheng Fei and Elena Zamolodchikova,
Dos Santos was inspired by her home country's audience and added a new move (full-twisting double layout) on her routine to reach a
higher score. It was an amazing moment for her that made powerful tumblings with difficult jumps (Dos Santos and Double Layout).
Everything worked so well and she achieved her best score ever under new system (15.600). Although Cheng Fei
had a superb routine, she fell on her usual double twisting double back somersault which caused her to finish fifth. With one of the most
difficult floor exercise routines ever performed in women's artistic gymnastics, Daiane won her second consecutive Gold Medal at the World Cup Final.
Brazil finished the competition with a successful and never-seen-before six medals — two Golds
(Diego Hypolito and Daiane dos Santos on Floor), two Silvers
(Daniele Hypolito on Beam and Lais Souza on Vault, and two Bronzes
(Diego Hypolito on Vault and Lais Souza on Floor).
In 2007, Daiane's first competition of the year was the World Cup Ghent in May. Daiane used it as a warm-up for the Pan American Games.
She grabbed two finals (Floor and Uneven Bars), she was 8th in Uneven Bars and got a Bronze medal in Floor. Her low score (14.600) was caused by
an easier floor exercise performance in which she replaced a Double Arabian Tuck with a Full Twisting Double Tuck, and a Double Layout with a Double Tuck
besides little mistakes.
June 2007, Daiane attended a Tri-Meet competition which was held in Natal/RN where Brazil was fighting for medals along with Great Britain
and Pan American rival Canada. Brazilians swept all gold medals, including Daiane dos Santos once again in the Floor, but this time with a very
consistent performance resulting in a competitive 15.225 score.
On July 6, 2007, Daiane had a level 1 torsion on her right ankle and didn't attend a Pan American Arena inauguration. She was, however,
later confirmed to take her spot in Brazil's Pan American Team.
Daiane was supposed to take part in Floor and Vault events, but during her Team Finals Floor routine at the very first day of competition,
she showed up not been completely recovered from the lesion as she left the apparatus crying and scored a low 15.150. Even so, she placed 3rd and
qualified for the Floor final. However, she was not able to attend it. She had been saved by the Technical Commission in order to prevent a worse
lesion which could let her out of the 2007 Worlds in Stuttgart.
Daiane had been under treatment since the XV Pan American Games, and recently she has attended to the 2007 Worlds, competing with the
Team in the Finals. She didn't perform well, not even scoring in the 15-point range in her floor exercises, but she was well-received as
one of the members that helped Brazilian Team to reach the highest position in history in a Team Final.
Daiane hasn't attended any competitions since, instead focusing on her lesion's treatment with hopes to be an Olympian once again in Beijing 2008.
For more information, visit her
profile page on the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique website.
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