A year ago Lucas Pinheiro suffered the biggest setback of his career. After suffering a car accident in Dallas and going through eight months of intense treatment, the rooster-weight didn’t think he would be back on the mats any time soon.
He thought wrong. Within no time he was back at it. Persistent and determined to go back on doing what he loves the most in life, Lucas returned to competition earlier this year. As a result, he has earned 10 gold medals in 2017 alone, the last one of them was in the IBJJF No-Gi Pan Americans, held last weekend in New York.
“The biggest lesson I have gotten with this marathon of championships remains the same as the one I learned from the car accident. That my health is the most important thing in all this. If I’m not 100% physically, I’m going to fail. I was actually hoping to win more titles if I could afford to compete more. If I could, I would compete every possible championship, because I love to compete,” said Lucas, who was bronze at this year’s World Championship in California.”
The season has not yet ended yet for the 23-year-old athlete from the Amazon. Lucas is now preparing to compete at the No-Gi Worlds, which is scheduled for December 16 in Anaheim, California. “Now, my focus is at the World No Gi and maybe I will fight the San Antonio Open, which happens on December 2,” revealed Lucas, who will keep training to seek two more gold medals this season.
“My Jiu-Jitsu practice remains the same. What’s been a real battle for me is learning about my body. Learn exercises that do not interfere in the treatment of my spine, learn to eat healthy without gaining a lot of muscles, learn to lose weight without getting weak for the tournament, and etc. I’m slowly reaching my goals, but I’m still far from what I dream to achieve in this sport.”
About Lucas Pinheiro
Lucas dos Santos Pinheiro started in jiu-jitsu at the age of 9 in Manaus, Amazonas. At Mestre Pina’s Jiu Jitsu academy he trained from white to the purple belt. At the age of 17, he moved to São Paulo by the invitation of Cícero Costha, master of the Miyao brothers and Leandro Lo. After receiving his brown belt from Costa, Lucas competed in the World Championship, won silver, and received an offer to teach in the United States at the Checkmat academy. In 2015 he received his black belt from of Carlos Holanda, also known as “Esquisito”.
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