Brazil's Bruna Alexandre during a women's table tennis singles match at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. GETTY IMAGES

29-year-old Bruna Alexandre is now taking on the Paralympic table tennis elite having already represented Brazil at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games becoming her country's first athlete to compete at both

Only a handful of people in history have ever competed at both the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Rarer still are those to have done it in the same summer but Brazil’s Bruna Alexandre is now one of those select few after competing at both Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The 29-year-old Brazilian, who had her right arm amputated due to thrombosis when she was just six months old, will compete in the Women's Doubles WD20 today after winning her first Mixed Doubles XD17 event 3-0 yesterday.

It comes after she participated in the Women's Team table tennis event at the Olympic Games in which she lost to eventual bronze-medalists South Korea in a month of Olympic table tennis completely dominated by China

“It’s very difficult to qualify for both the Olympics and the Paralympics, so I’m trying to make the most of this experience,” Alexandre told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. “I have to flip the switch. I try to adapt my game, slow it down a little, and play different angles. I’m used to it now,” said the four-time Paralympic medalist.

Her Olympic debut followed a bronze medal in non-disabled table tennis at the 2023 Pan American Games and she was thrilled to compete alongside some of the sport's modern greats.

“It was my first Olympic Games here in Paris, and it was a great experience being with the best athletes in the world,” she said. 

Though Alexandre is now Brazil's first athlete to compete at both the Olympics and Paralympics, she is not alone in her achievement on an international level with Australia’s Melissa Tapper and Poland’s Natalia Partyka both returning having participated in Olympic and Paralympic table tennis events in Tokyo 2020.



"In my class, some people don’t have an arm, so they have some difficulty with balance. The only thing that changes is the way you serve and the lack of balance. But I try to adapt more and more to play in the Olympics, which also helps me in the Paralympics," says Alexandre. "I think that’s what Natalia and Melissa did, and I did it too. I think that getting started in the Olympic sport helped us."

It was four-time Olympian and six-time Paralympic champion Natalia Partyka who inspired Alexandre after she watched her play on YouTube at the age of 13 and after eight losses to Partyka in her career Alexandre finally beat her long-term idol last year. 

“She always inspired me, and I dreamed of trying to beat her,” Alexandre recalled. “She was the person who inspired me the most to play in the Olympic Games.”

The two, along with Melissa Tapper, will compete in what is shaping up to be an exhilarating Women’s Singles Class 10 competition at the Paralympic Games in Paris. All of whom will be determined to dethrone defending champion Yang Qian of Australia who won gold at Tokyo 2020.