A solid if unspectacular performer on the WTCS circuit, Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes’ trump card is her raw speed in the water. Here's everything you need to know about Lopes…
Who is Vittoria Lopes?
There are very few female triathletes currently racing who are faster on the swim leg than Vittoria Lopes. Almost all reports of races in which the Brazilian is a competitor will contain a sentence along the lines of ‘Lopes was first out of the water’.
It certainly appears that this is in the genes: her mother Helda swam for Brazil in the Pan American Games in the mid-70s, while Vittoria’s cousin, Luiz Altamir Melo, represented his country in the pool at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Lopes is no one-trick pony, though. Building on any advantage going into T1, she’s proved she’s more than capable of holding her own on two wheels, her tenacious riding often finding her duelling with the world’s best.
And even if the run is the weakest card in her pack, the 27-year-old has accumulated an impressive palmares over the years.
For much of her early career, Lopes largely competed on or near her home turf, whether in national championships (she’s a double junior champion) or in championships across the Americas.
She’s amassed a strong collection of medals – both individual and mixed relay – from these events, whether in the South American Games or the Pan American Games.
Now based in Boulder, Colorado, Lopes has also made a strong impression on the global stage, particularly in recent years.
In 2019, she took fourth place at the Tokyo Olympic qualification event, and has registered a couple of top-10 places on the WTCS circuit.
Lopes’ opening performances in half-distance racing also suggest a future in long-form racing – she finished seventh in the inaugural PTO Canadian Open in 2022, a showing that earned her a captain’s pick berth on Team International in that year’s Collins Cup.
This spring has seen her also claim gold at Escape from Alcatraz, with the 1.5-mile swim back to shore playing right into this water baby’s hands.
How old is Vittoria Lopes?
Vittoria Lopes was born on 15 March 1996, making her 27 years of age.
Vittoria Lopes’ career highlights
August 2014: Early world champs silver
In Edmonton at the ITU aquathlon world championships, Lopes is second on the podium in the junior women’s race, a performance that puts her in eighth in the elite women’s competition.
October 2014: National champion
Set up by a swim that’s comfortably – and customarily – a minute quicker than that of her rivals, Lopes is crowned as Brazil’s national junior champion in Manaus.
She retains her title the following August in Vila Velha, where her margin of victory sees her finish the best part of five minutes before the silver medallist.
August 2016: First elite top 10
Lopes spends her 2016 season building confidence and experience among the elite ranks in World Cup and European Cup racing.
Her best result comes in Sweden where she makes her bow in an elite top-10, taking ninth place in a European Cup race in Malmo.
October 2017: First appearance on an elite podium
Lopes finishes in the top three in an elite race for the first time, taking bronze at the American Championships in Puerto Lopez in Ecuador.
It’s a double celebration as her performance also bags silver in the U23 category. In both categories, the American Sophie Watts takes gold.
May 2018: Golden girls
The thin air of high-altitude Cochabamba in Bolivia clearly agrees with Lopes. After narrowly missing out on a medal in the women’s race at the South American Games the day before, she improves on that fourth place when, as part of the Brazilian mixed relay quartet, she puts in a gold-winning performance.
That mixed relay trick is repeated the following year when the Games visit Monterrey in Mexico, although the margin of victory is much slimmer, just 24 seconds ahead of the host nation’s squad.
June 2019: First WTS top 10
Although not ultimately troubling the podium places, Lopes serves notice on the rest of the field in Leeds as to her unfolding promise when she enters T2 in the esteemed company of Georgia Taylor-Brown, Katie Zaferes and Jess Learmonth.
July 2019: Double joy in darkest Peru
At the Pan American Games in Lima, Lopes is, as ever, first out of the water by quite some margin, but has to settle for silver when her compatriot Luisa Baptista overpowers her on the run.
Gold in the mixed relay follows, capping a very productive few days for both Lopes and Brazil in Peru.
August 2019: Unexpected fourth at Olympic test event
This rich vein of form continues at the Olympic qualification event in Tokyo.
While the seasoned likes of Flora Duffy and Vicky Holland deny Lopes a podium place, the Brazilian’s fourth place (Taylor-Brown and Learmonth finished first and second but were DSQ'd for crossing the line together) puts her in the white-hot firmament of elite racing, with her scalps including Laura Lindemann, Non Stanford and Taylor Spivey. Has Lopes finally arrived?
July 2022: A promising half-distance debut
For such a strong swimmer as Lopes, a longer distance means a big time advantage coming into T1. And so it is at the first-ever PTO Canadian Open, the Brazilian’s first taste of middle-distance racing.
A time penalty incurred for swimming inside a marker buoy nonetheless doesn’t severely dent Lopes’ impressive seventh place.
August 2022: A Collins Cup captain’s pick
After her strong showing at the Canadian Open, Lopes is handed a berth in Team International at the Collins Cup, taking her place alongside A-list team-mates such as Ashleigh Gentle, Flora Duffy, Paula Findlay, Hayden Wilde and Lionel Sanders.
Lopes finishes second in her heat behind the legendary Nicola Spirig.
October 2022: Silver and gold at the double
At the South American Games in Asuncion in Paraguay, Lopes takes silver in the women’s event and gold as part of Brazil’s mixed relay squad.
Three weeks later, at the Americas Championships in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo, silver and gold come her way again in the same events. The bling is starting to accumulate.
November 2022: Highest WTCS finish
Although a top-five place continues to elude her, Lopes records her best WTCS finish yet with sixth at the Grand Final in Abu Dhabi.
Now beating the likes of Cassandre Beaugrand and Taylor Spivey, has the woman from Fortaleza belatedly pulled up a seat at the WTCS top table?
June 2023: Lopes strikes Californian gold
In San Francisco, at the annual Escape From Alcatraz, the 1.5-mile swim across the bay from the notorious island plays right into Lopes’ hands and she takes a rare position atop the podium.
Vittoria Lopes in quotes
On the state of Brazilian triathlon: “We are growing. There is a group of women who are doing very well and others who are younger and who could go very far.”
On taking the women’s title at the 2023 edition of Escape From Alcatraz: “I really love the feel of winning, but at the same time I really enjoyed the race. The run was really hard but fun. It’s always good to win, you know?”
What’s next for Vittoria Lopes?
Like all top-grade Olympic-distance triathletes, the spectre of Paris 2024 is a difficult one for dreamers to resist. In the meantime, Lopes will be hoping to crank up the pressure on her contemporaries by finally becoming a fixture of the upper echelons of WTCS races.
With a couple of impressive performances under her belt in half-distance racing (particularly that seventh place at the PTO Canadian Open last year), don’t be surprised if the Brazilian elects to exclusively go long on the other side of the Olympics.
Top image credit: Wagner Araujo/World Triathlon
