Giullia Rodrigues Penalber de Oliveira (born 13 April 1992) is a Brazilian freestyle wrestler. She is the gold medalist in the women's 57kg event at the 2023 Pan American Games and the 2018 South American Games. She is also a two-time gold medalist in this event at the Pan American Wrestling Championships, reached the quarterfinals three times in the World Wrestling Championships, in the 2014, 2019 and 2021 editions, and finished 5th at the 2024 Olympic Games.
Career
Penalber competed in the 55kg event at the 2014 World Wrestling Championships held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan where she reached the quarterfinals. The following year, she competed in the 53kg event where she was eliminated in her first match by Lilya Horishna of Ukraine. In 2018, she competed in the 57kg event where she was eliminated in her second match by Grace Bullen of Norway. In 2019, she reached the quarterfinals in the 57kg event.
Penalber competed at several editions of the Pan American Games. In 2015, she represented Brazil without winning a medal and, at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, she won one of the bronze medals in the 57kg event.
In 2018, Penalber won the gold medal in the 57kg event at the South American Games held in Cochabamba, Bolivia. At the 2020 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Ottawa, Canada, she won the gold medal in the 57kg event. She also competed in the 2020 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament, also held in Ottawa, Canada, without qualifying for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. She won one match and lost two matches and she did not advance to the semi-finals.
In March 2021, Penalber won the gold medal in the 57kg event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2021 held in Rome, Italy. She won the silver medal in her event at the 2021 Dan Kolov & Nikola Petrov Tournament held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In May 2021, she failed to qualify for the Olympics at the World Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Sofia, Bulgaria. She won her first two matches but she then lost her match in the semi-finals against Mathilde Rivière of France. At the end of that same month, she won the gold medal in the women's 57kg event at the 2021 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Guatemala City, Guatemala. In October 2021, she was eliminated in her second match in the women's 57kg event at the World Wrestling Championships in Oslo, Norway.
In 2022, Penalber competed in the 57kg event at the Yasar Dogu Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey. She won one of the bronze medals in her event at the 2022 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Acapulco, Mexico. A month later, Penalber also won one of the bronze medals in her event at the Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series 2022 held in Rome, Italy. She won the gold medal in her event at the 2022 Tunis Ranking Series event held in Tunis, Tunisia.
She was eliminated in her first match in the 57kg event at the 2022 World Wrestling Championships held in Belgrade, Serbia. She won the silver medal in her event at the 2022 South American Games held in Asunción, Paraguay.
Penalber won the gold medal in the women's 57kg event at the 2023 Pan American Games held in Santiago, Chile. She defeated Hannah Taylor of Canada in her gold medal match.
In 2024, Penalber won the silver medal in her event at the Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Acapulco, Mexico. A few days later, she competed at the 2024 Pan American Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Acapulco, Mexico hoping to qualify for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France. She was eliminated in her first match. Penalber also competed at the 2024 World Wrestling Olympic Qualification Tournament held in Istanbul, Turkey and she earned a quota place for Brazil for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, being ranked 11th in the world, she entered as the tournament's No. 7 seed. She beat Rckaela Aquino, from Guam, in the first round, but in the quarterfinals, she faced Moldovan Anastasia Nichita, who was the 2022 world champion, 2023 world runner-up and current No. 2 in the world, losing 5–0, and was awaiting the possibility of a repechage.Giullia Penalber perde nas quartas do wrestling em Paris Giulia Penalber conhece adversária de estreia no Wrestling em Paris After the Moldovan qualified for the final, Penalber entered the repechage, where she would face the German Sandra Paruszewski, two-time bronze medalist at the European Championships.Giullia Penalber vai à repescagem e segue na briga pelo bronze Penalber won the fight and became the first Brazilian in history to reach a medal match in Olympic Wrestling. She lost to China's Kexin Hong in the bronze medal match, but finished in 5th place, the best placement in the country's history in the sport.Giullia Penalber vence alemã na repescagem e vai disputar o bronze no wrestling em ParisGiullia Penalber vence alemã na repescagem e coloca Brasil na disputa por medalha no wrestlingGiullia Penalber perde bronze para chinesa, mas garante melhor colocação do Brasil no wrestling
Personal life
Judoka Victor Penalber is her brother.
Before switching to wrestling, she also competed in judo and she won medals at several events, including the 2009 Pan American U20 Championships and the 2012 Brazilian U23 Championships.
Achievements
YearTournamentLocationResultEvent2015Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsSantiago, Chile 3rdFreestyle 53kg2016Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsFrisco, United States 2ndFreestyle 55kg2018South American GamesCochabamba, Bolivia 1stFreestyle 57kg2019Pan American GamesLima, Peru 3rdFreestyle 57kg2020Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsOttawa, Canada 1stFreestyle 57kg2021Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsGuatemala City, Guatemala 1stFreestyle 57kg 2022Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsAcapulco, Mexico 3rdFreestyle 57kgSouth American GamesAsunción, Paraguay 2ndFreestyle 57kg 2023Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsBuenos Aires, Argentina 2ndFreestyle 57kgPan American GamesSantiago, Chile 1stFreestyle 57kg2024Pan American Wrestling ChampionshipsAcapulco, Mexico 2ndFreestyle 57kg
References
External links
Giullia Rodrigues Penalber at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics (archived)