City of God Favela Welcomes Homegrown Hero
ANDERSON: Live from New York, you're watching CNN. This is Connect the World with me, Becky Anderson. Welcome back. Rio's homegrown hero Rafaela Silva is the talk of town and all of Brazil. She is the first athlete to win gold for the host nation at the 2016 Olympics, a feat all the more remarkable when you consider her humble roots. She was born in Rio de Janeiro's notorious City of God Favela. And she is being honored with a parade to celebrate her Olympic glory. Getting set for that is our Shasta Darlington who joins us from the City of God. And describe just where you are and what the atmosphere is like, Shasta.</s>SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Becky. I'm here outside a small judo studio where kids are getting ready to greet Rafaela Silva when she shows up in about an hour's time. This is the Faveal where she was born, where she grew up. And while she is a hero across Brazil, this is where they really -- they really want to grab her and carry her around town. And that's what they're waiting to do. Hers is such a fantasic story for all of the people around here. This is the notorious favela that most people have heard of because of the movie of the same name, City of God, that for a couple of decades was controlled by drug dealers. And now it's still impoverished. And she has shown to the people here that through sport you can climb your way out. In fact, we talked with her parents, they told us she was pretty hard to control as a kid, a fighter, so they put her in judo classes. And look where she is now. Especially rewarding when you consider what she went through after the London Olympics. She was disqualified because of an illegal hold. And then just based a barage of racist attacks on social media. She has gone beyond that. And now she's a hero of all Brazil and showing people -- what she told us is that, you know, sport is sometimes up, sometimes you're down. But this is something that everybody can get ahead in.</s>ANDERSON: Right. And she's obviously inspiring a whole bunch of youngsters just behind you -- I don't know if you cameraman can open up for you, just over your, what, left shoulder there's a couple of what, 5 or 6- year-olds, just turn around -- you can see these little kids. Just open up behind you there -- the other way. There you go. These two are having a really good go of it. Come on, guys.</s>DARLINGTON: Exactly.</s>ANDERSON: I mean, Shasta...</s>DARLINGTON: Getting ready for Rafaela Silva.</s>ANDERSON: Absolutely. Well, that's just marvelous. What do Brazilians think, very briefly, about the Olympics? Do they believe it was a success?</s>DARLINGTON: You know, the reaction has been really mixed here. There was so much trepidation. Would Rio pull it off and should they be holding these games at all? What we see at the end, a poll said 62 percent of Brazilians still think the Olympics did more harm than good, but 57 percent think they made Rio look good. And that's important to Brazilians. I think the fact that there were some really important gold medals won just in the last couple of days also lifted the mood. You know, the first gold medal for men's football is something that had the whole country cheering. The men's volleyball also just nailed it in the last few hours. So, I think it's left a bittersweet taste in people's mouths. They're happy about the gold medals that were won. They're happy that Rio did pull it off, but they're not sure it was really worth it all, Becky.</s>ANDERSON: Well, I tell you what, those two little lads behind you, they think Rio pulled it off, I can tell you. They're still going. Let's hope that we see those two lads in about eight years' time or perhaps even four, who knows. Shasta, thank you for that. Your Parting Shots today and as a Scot this is one after my own heart. A desert dreamer brings a winter sport to one of the world's hottest countries. Jon Jensen has the story for you.</s>LAJOS BELLELI, COACH, QATAR CURLING: Rock first. Good.</s>JON JENSEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (inaudible) is chasing an Olympic dream no one has ever achieved...</s>BELLELI: The slide will be good, very good.</s>JENSEN: ...to make this cold weather sport succeed in one of the hottest countries on the planet.</s>BELLELI: You push yourself a little harder.</s>JENSEN: Belleli is the coach of Qatar's new curling team.</s>BELLELI: It's a good opportunity to be at something here. So, of course it's harder because nobody knows anything about curling. No, your balance is on your sliding foot.</s>JENSEN: His club is just a few months old. It's the first in the Middle East. And Belleli, a former national champion from Hungary, is starting from scratch. Finding players in this desert nation was one.</s>BELLELI: No problem, no problem. This is just the first delivery. No problem.</s>JENSEN: Most are students who had never heard of curling, let alone played it before.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you deliver, you have to hit, the other rocks and it's pretty hard.</s>JENSEN: Off the ice more obstacles, a budget to convincing others that curling is even worth it. And last but not least, the team doesn't even have their own place to play. When they practice, they have to rent time on this ice rink in the middle of a shopping mall's food court.</s>JENSEN: Despite the odds, Qatar played its first international tournament this spring in Sweden. They didn't win a single match. But that hasn't stopped these players from believing.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My dream is to compete and lift my country to be in better ranking.</s>JENSEN: Belleli hopes to qualify for the winter games in 2018 or at least have fun trying.</s>BELLELI: It's always important not to enjoy only the results, to enjoy the chase.</s>JENSEN: And this dream, he says, he'll chase to the end. Jon Jensen, CNN, Doha.</s>ANDERSON: Well, before we leave you this hour, we hear a lot about the terrible suffering and loss of innocence of kids caught up in conflict, don't we? On our Facebook page we have a story that brings some hope. Refugee children share their dreams for the future with high ambitions despite the trauma they've faced. You can watch that video and many others on Facebook.com/CNNconnect. That is Facebook.com/CNNConnect. I'm Becky Anderson. That was Connect the World out of New York for you, where we are all week. Thank you for watching. We will see you this time tomorrow. END