Press relations for swimmer Leonardo Macedo

Since the end of 2023, I had followed the career of Leonardo Macedo, an open water athlete who has swum at Clube Curitibano since he was a child. I took on his press relations because of the closeness I already had with aquatic sports. I wrote the press releases for each result, from the South American Aquatics Championships in Cali, in October 2024, to the Open Water Swimming World Cup in Soma Bay, Egypt, in February 2025, and the cover story of issue 311.

I arranged the story with Rádio Transamérica, a longtime partner of the Club. Before Leo and coach Ken Sorgi's interview on the Papo de Craque program, I prepared the athlete with media training, covering key messages, posture in front of the microphone and camera and care with sensitive topics. I directed the cover photo shoot at the Club's aquatic center. I held monthly conversations with Leo and Ken about performance and media positioning, and in the transition I handed this whole history over to the colleague who took over the story.

Athlete press relations, media relations, spokesperson preparation, image direction and narrative building over a season, in partnership with the athlete and the coaching staff.

On October 27, 2024, in Hong Kong, Leo won silver in the 4×1500 m mixed relay at the Open Water Swimming World Cup, Brazil's first relay medal in the history of the competition. The achievement became the cover of issue 311 and an interview on Papo de Craque, on Rádio Transamérica. For the Club, the gain was in institutional image, because the story of an athlete who came up through its own pools reached the press and reinforced Curitibano as a developer of high-performance athletes.

The story was picked up by outlets such as CazéTV, ge, Olympics.com, UOL Esporte and Gazeta Esportiva. According to the clipping report, there were an estimated 25 to 30 articles, with a combined potential audience of more than 50 million users, and five sports organizations published official statements about the achievement.

It is the story of an athlete who has swum at the Club's aquatic center since he was a child and won an unprecedented medal for Brazil. The cover told this through the image, with Leo back where he started, as an inspiration for the younger swimmers there today. My job was to make sure this journey was told consistently at every stage, from the Cali press release to the magazine cover, from the radio interview to the monthly conversations with athlete and coach. The narrative continued after I handed the story on. In 2025, Leo reached the top of the world junior open water ranking, the cover of issue 324, written from the history I left.