It takes great courage to recover, a will to do more than should be necessary just to survive. To thrive, beyond recovery, reaching into the realms of dreams and goals, is another level of grit altogether and stories of such incredible ascendance must be highlighted and celebrated. Among the judoka of the global judo community there are so many stories of resilience and bravery, those which transcend the pressures of loss in the wake of disaster and instability.
One such story is that of Arthur Bonato de Melo, a 14 year old resident of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul, an area hit hard by flooding in June of this year. Thousands of people were displaced, including Arthur, a devastating blow for him and his family. However, Arthur is a judoka and his commitment to the sport and its values shone brightly on the darkest days. Only a matter of weeks after the evacuation of his home, Arthur fought at the 2025 World Cadet Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria, winning an outstanding bronze medal, his first placing internationally.
Arthur told his story openly, “My family and I had to evacuate. The mayor issued a warning the day before, saying we had to leave the area. I had already started packing my things. My judogi and medals were first because those were the most important things to me. I lived in a ground-floor apartment and our home was completely destroyed. I lost everything, except the judogi and medals that I managed to grab before the floodwaters entered. The water reached the ceiling and nearly flooded the second floor of the apartment above ours. We lost everything we couldn’t carry."
"After the water went down, some of my mum’s friends offered us a place to stay at their parents’ house and we accepted. Meanwhile, my mum and a team cleaned up the mess, the mud, the sludge, everything. It took almost a month to get things back to normal but we moved to a new apartment and now we live on the eighth floor.
Lessons I’ve learned through judo helped me a lot. Judo taught me discipline, how to handle certain situations and not to panic. That definitely helped me stay calm during such a hard time. Judo has come to mean everything to me. I can’t imagine being without it anymore. I chose to take my medals and judogi because they represent my achievements, my story. I could replace clothes but not the medals; they’re my most precious possessions.”
With such a challenging backdrop, the world cadet medal took on a new significance, “Winning a medal at the World Cadet Championships at just 14 years old, in my first year in this age group, was very emotional. I went back to my club to celebrate with everyone, my team, my family.”
Arthur is now committed to training even harder and with such evidence of his ability to rise through adversity already banked, his ultimate goal seems very possible indeed,” I’m going to stay very focused and hope to one day make it to the Olympic Games.”
Arthur Bonato de Melo is a product of his family, his country and of course judo, a judoka with undefeatable spirit. He fights barriers with his character and this seems to be a winning formula.