Leah Fortune is getting the world with her "Cambalhota Mortal"
Brazil has a new promise women soccer raising star: a green-eyed blonde with freckled skin as bright as her smile. Her name is Leah Lynn Gabriela Fortune, and she's an American teenager raised in the Chicago 'burbs.
But Leah, or as the Brazilians call her, "Lay-uh," was practically milk-fed on "joga bonito" -- the beautiful game. She was born in San Paulo, Brazil to American parents, so it was only natural that Leah Fortune would subliminally absorb the game before she learned to walk. She has the futbol bloodline too, with a Brazilian grandmother and a father who was raised in the Amazon as a missionary child. Even if Leah hasn't learned to speak Portuguese fluently yet, she reflects a new generation of transnational soccer players in the United States. There's Tina Ellertson, who plays for the women's national team but could have played for Ghana or Nigeria; Jozy Altidore, who could have represented Haiti; and Giuseppe Rossi, who recently decided to play for Italy over the U.S. after coming of age.
"My whole family is crazy about soccer," said Fortune. "My dad introduced me to the game. He played when he was a teenager, and my mother owns a soccer complex. I was born into the game -- I just love it."
Apparently, the love is mutual. For the first time in her life, Leah finds herself signing autographs and staving off excited Brazilian fans like a regular Beckham-ess. Turns out dual citizenship is a blessing in disguise: Leah can play with one foot in each continent, straddling playing time between her club, Team Chicago, and the U-20 Brazilian national team. However, all bets are off once Leah turns 21, when she'll have to commit exclusively to USA or Brazil.
But for now, as the youngest player on the team at 17, Fortune is taking full advantage of the opportunities that come with a starting role for Brazil. That includes owning a trick the Brazilians had never seen before -- a flip throw-in in which she levitates the ball into the box with her hands. "Leah Cambalhota Mortal" was the headline streaming across Brazilian televisions and newspapers during the CONMEBOL South American U-20 championships this past March.
With a 30-goal surplus against opponents over the course of seven games, Leah and her teammates stormed through the CONMEBOL Tournament as if every game was a carnival. Following in the big footsteps of her idols, Marta and Kaká, Fortune and her teammates will travel to the U-20 World Cup in Chile, which will be staged Nov. 20 to Dec. 7.
In the meantime, the savvy junior will bring her newly acquired Brazilian samba, or jinga, to her Wheaton Academy high school team and Team Chicago crew in between training camps. Fortune recently orally committed to Clemson University, after considering Notre Dame and West Virginia, both top-notch programs. In regard to his new recruit, Tigers' Head Coach Hershey Strosberg wrote via e-mail, "I cannot imagine how tough it is for her to balance school, full-time training, living in Brazil and being away from family and friends. It speaks volumes to her courage and determination."
Maya Gabeira is the super Brazilian woman of surfing
After a turbulent childhood, the 21-year-old Brazilian is conquering the male-dominated world of big waves.April 11, 2008 by Pete Thomas
She'd moved from Brazil to Hawaii and had become passionately addicted to surfing large waves.
"Waimea was the first huge wave I ever saw, and I just felt that was what I wanted to do for my life," she says.
She'd ridden Waimea Bay, but not during one of those epic swells, when Oahu's entire North Shore falls under a booming assault that separates men from boys and transforms virtually all women into spectators.
She arrived in time to witness a gigantic set of waves breaking clear across the bay, blitzing the paddling channel. This occurs only when wave faces surpass 50 feet.
Gabeira was terrified. But friends told her the closeout sets were 30 minutes apart, so off she hustled, eventually gaining the lineup, where she bobbed like a tiny cork astride her 10-foot-4 gun.
"I caught four waves in four hours," she boasts. "And one was my very best wave, and I remember when I came in I was so high. And I think I was high for like 10 days."
The striking Gabeira had, at 18, become a bona fide big-wave surfer. She went on to tackle Maverick's near Half Moon Bay and Dungeons off South Africa.
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Last summer she graduated to the daredevil sport of tow surfing, where jet-skis and ropes are used to pull surfers onto larger and faster waves, with fellow Brazilian Carlos Burle as partner and mentor.
That led to a trip to Teahupoo in Tahiti, where she overcame a savage wipeout to conquer some of the most dangerous waves on earth.Tonight Gabeira, who turned 21 on Thursday, will be one of three women honored during the Billabong XXL Global Big Wave Awards at the Grove of Anaheim. Gabeira is heavily favored to win the Women's Overall Performance award for the second consecutive year.
"She's shattered every barrier women's surfing has known when it comes to big waves," says Bill Sharp, director of the yearlong contest. "She routinely rides waves bigger than 99.9% of the men in the surfing world would ride."
Last August she hooked up with Burle, a fellow Red Bull team rider, and new doors were open -- behind which lay snarling, spitting and potentially maiming beasts such as those that surfaced Nov. 1 at Teahupoo.
Burle was eyed suspiciously by some who believed, perhaps, he was leading a lamb to slaughter.
"What do you say about a woman going out there and doing it? I'd say women, men . . . at the end of the day we've all got a shot," says Laird Hamilton, a legendary waterman, non-judgmentally. "If you've got a calling to go and ride waves like that, then more power to you."
Teahupoo, like Waimea, has killed and seriously injured surfers. Its waves are not as towering but contain just as much water. Fast-moving swells are compressed into the reef. Long walls jack swiftly upward and heave lips that are frighteningly thick.
Barrels are literally round enough to fit a bus and those lips smash upon water only four to six feet deep.
"I was scared. Of course I was scared," Gabeira recalls.
Her first try was from behind a jet-ski driven by Raimana Van Bastolaer, a local legend. It was a large set wave, though, and Van Bastolaer, sensing his partner was too deep, tried to abort.
But Gabeira had already let go of the rope and was on the shoulder, and found herself too high on the face, getting sucked upward.
A ledge had formed in the face and she managed to air-drop onto her back, whereupon she was quickly sucked over like a clump of lifeless kelp and smashed anyway.
"I was just hoping for the best, and ready for the worst," says Hamilton, who raced to her rescue.
"You don't know what you're going to get, or if it's going to come up in chunks or in one piece."
Finally, she was able to tuck nicely into several blue barrels to further establish herself as a budding star in this male-dominated universe.
She's honored to be part of tonight's awards ceremony, she says, but her brown eyes sparkle and her smile widens when she reveals the real reason she's looking so happy.
