14 Year Old Brazilian Teen, Eduarda Souza, Denied Visa Request

Another day, another visa request has been denied. In what seems to be the ongoing news as we approach the CrossFit Games, another athlete has had her visa application denied. This time it is 14-year-old Eduarda Souza.

Souza finished 8th in the Age Group Online Qualifier for the Girls 14-15 division. Souza is from Brazil, but she moved to Portugal two years ago. According to Souza, she was told that her request was denied because she had not lived in Portugal long enough.

View this post on Instagram

“What eles an athlete needs to do to prove an immigrant officer that she/he is eligible to and DESERVE to be accepted to enter the country that’s hosting the most important competition of the year? Besides qualifying thru a very hard cycle of secondary competitions, besides achieving all the legal requirements to be there, besides gathering sponsors and sorting the monetary aspect out – which is super relevant if you come from a third world country – it seems that having everything rightfully planned still not enough. What aggravated the situation is the fact that is no longer a “privilege” of South and Central Americans and Africans, it has been also affecting a small percentage of Europeans. Athletes are in general ambassadors of the sports they have dedicated their lives to. Sports have historically been proved as the best platform of unification and to spread peace. Crushing someone’s dream whilst seated behind an immigration booth with a micro perception of what that’s person life is, is just obscene. Life is unfair one said, it looks like the one was right.” I’LL COME BACK STRONGER 💪🏽👊🏽 ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ @semperfit_official @igolasfitness @wodndone @purvitaewodnutrition @brazuca_training @box3070crossfit ➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖➖ #mylifestyle #crossfitteens #crossfitgirls #crossfit #teens #coachleosouza #teamleosouza #clinicareviv #TeamRibas #semperfit #purvitaewodnutrition #igolasfitness #savagebarbell

A post shared by Dudinha (@dudinhasouzacf) on Jul 23, 2019 at 4:40am PDT

The CrossFit Games leaderboard has replaced Souza with the 11th place qualifier, Claire Doty.

So far four athletes have confirmed their visa applications have been denied.

Roman Khrennikov
Darko Tasevski
Viki Ristoska
Eduarda Souza

Let’s keep our fingers crossed that no more athletes encounter similar issues.

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