In 2016 20-year-old Ana Satila had an experience most elite athletes can only ever dream about – she got to compete in front of a home crowd at an Olympic Games.

This week she will experience the thrill of competing at a canoe slalom world championships in front of her home crowd, and she’s hoping this time there will be a very different outcome.

The Olympic Games didn’t go the way she hoped they would. Today she still talks about her disappointment at only managing to finish 17th in the women’s K1, after a 50 second penalty for a missed gate cost her any chance of making the coveted final.

But despite all of this, Satila is in no doubt what that Olympic Games experience meant for her.

“I always say that the Olympics was the best experience I have ever had in my entire career,” Satila said.

“But it was a very sad moment because I had so much pressure on me with everything around me. I couldn’t perform in the water everything I had trained, everything I had done, at that moment.”

This week Satila is hoping to make amends for what happened two years ago, although she feels she has nothing to prove. Last year she made Brazilian canoe slalom history by winning the country’s first ever World Championship medal, and she hopes to make further history by competing in both the K1 and the C1 in Tokyo in 2020.

There is no doubt, though, that she would love to finish on the podium in front of her home fans.

“Now is another moment,” she said.

“I think I have everything ready for this special moment here in Rio. I just want to be happy in the water, I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a good time in the water.

“I think I have a point to prove to myself. The fact I didn’t put in the race everything I wanted to show. Then I lost my coach, who was like a father to me, so this was all a bit hard.

“I just tried to do the best I could. Now I don’t have anything to prove any more, I just want to be happy in the water, and to show that I give 100 per cent every day and I’m here to race and represent my country.”

2016 was Satila’s second Olympics. Her name is in the record books as the youngest competitor in the K1 field at the London Games, when as a 16-year-old and Brazil’s sole representative in the canoe slalom she finished 16th.

Twice now she has performed on the biggest multi-sport stage on the world, each time with good reason to feel slightly over-awed.

“It’s like a dream come true after the Olympics, we have another opportunity to be in the water at home, this is really special,” she said.

“I don’t have words to describe this at the moment. All the Brazilian team is ready to race and we are excited. Racing in all parts of the world is really special, but when you are at home it is another thing.

“We have a great Brazilian team and I am sure we are going to cause a few surprises.”

The 2018 ICF Canoe Slalom World Championships begin in Rio on Tuesday.

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