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Fame and fortune riding on Pessoa's shoulders
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sept 1 (AFP) - Football always has been and probably always will be the supreme sport in Brazil - although Formula One drivers, tennis player Gustavo Kuerten and the country's beach volleyballers have occasionally vied for a place in the sun with stars of the 'beautiful game'. But in recent years the emergence of Rodrigo Pessoa has seen show jumping rise in profile with the 27-year-old rider emerging as a star in his own right. Going into the Sydney Games he is ranked as number one in the world. In fact the name Pessoa is not a new one in equestrian circles and Rodrigo had the undoubted advantage of having grown up under the protective wing of his father Nelson, himself one of the leading horsemen in the world in his heyday. Rodrigo was born in Paris in 1972 and the French connection does not end there. His current favourite horse is from France and rejoices in the distinctly Gallic name of Baloubet du Rouet. But it was on Lianos in 1998 in Rome that Pessoa won the World Championship - a year that also saw him win the first of three consecutive World Indoor Cups, completing the hat-trick in the unlikely setting for such a traditional sport of Las Vegas on Baloubet du Rouet. In his two previous Olympic appearances Pessoa has shone. In Barcelona in 1992 he was the youngest rider in the field at 19 but still finished a more than creditable ninth. Four years later he starred as Brazil won the team bronze medal at the Atlanta Games - the first ever medal at Olympic level in Equestrian sports for the South American country. But fame brings its own perils and at Sydney the weight of expectation will for the first time be on the relatively slim shoulders of Rodrigo, whose baby face has earned him a legion of female admirers. He may be based in Europe now but Pessoa has become a big name in Brazil. At 27 he is still a novice in show jumping terms where skill and savvy often count for more than the fearlessness of youth. But if Pessoa brings home the gold in Australia he will already be well on course to join the likes of Pele, the late Ayrton Senna and former tennis star Maria Bueno in the country's sporting folklore.
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