IT might be a familiar scene for Filipinos to see local athletes enter politics after, or even during, their sporting careers but it isn’t that much of a common practice elsewhere, let alone for women.
Following her last few volleyball forays in 2006 where she won a quadruple of bronze medals for Brazil in beach volleyball, Leila Barros transitioned into an equally loud and tantalizing world away from the hardcourt.
She joined the Republican political party in 2013 before moving to the Brazilian Socialist Party five years later.
It was also in 2018 when Barros became the first female representative of Brazil’s Federal District in the Senate.
Leila serves an ace
Now part of the Democratic Labour Party, Barros bared the very reason why politics was her path of choice after volleyball and why the sport will remain part of her life’s purpose wherever she goes.
“My start in politics was something very natural. When I stopped playing, I started working into give access to the most vulnerable people to sports,” Barros shared when asked by SPIN.ph during the media event for the Brazilian volleyball icon.
“That was due my trajectory myself as my family came from humble beginnings. I needed to play sports growing up.
“Ever since, I always knew that once I ended my career in sports, I would do my best to also give opportunities for young athletes to enter sports and that would be my greatest pride after volleyball.”
New platform, same mission
Back when she was still an athlete, Barros didn’t just make it her mission to succeed at the highest level of international play for Brazil.
Part of her always wanted to serve the people as she stood on a platform of influence as a world-class athlete.
Now turning 54 in a few days, the local crowd darling is keen on still acing her devotion to public service as a senator without fully leaving her sporting roots behind.
“As an athlete, I always used my image to defend women and the environment. Now, as a politician, I’m working in a broader way, with a more macro view for all of society, especially for the most vulnerable,” she said.
Barros even bared being at the forefront of combatting alleged corruption cases in the country — one that the Philippines would know all too well.
“In our country, we are also currently investigating fraud cases with my fellow senators in the [Brazilian] Senate,” the Brazilian senator said.
“Our goal is to find the people involved in corruption and making sure that they pay for it," she added. “We want to show that all the money being taken from the public system returns to the population and all the people responsible [for corruption] gets in jail.”
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