Brazilian specialist Caroline Pires Militao and right back Cinthya Piquet do not just share the same team, Brazil, but the same DNA too.

22-year-old Caroline is the daughter of Cinthya, the legendary Brazilian player who is a multiple world championship winner and in Pingtan, at the 2024 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship, they are working together towards a podium and The World Games place.

IHF.info caught up with the pair just after their main round shoot-out win over Norway.

IHF.info: You just combined with each other to help your side win the shoot-out against Norway. First of all, what's it like providing her with those goals?

Cinthya: That is my specialty. Yes, it's a unique feeling. It's very rewarding. I always say, you know, that not even in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would experience all of this with her, with my daughter.

It is an indescribable emotion that sometimes lacks words. And even more so for receiving all her steps, right? So, from daughter to mother, it's not from mother to daughter, from daughter to mother, it's an inexplicable emotion.

IHF.info: What's your first memory of your mum with Beach Handball?

Cinthiya: She’s been playing with the national team for 20 years and I am 22, so I have followed her my entire life. I’d wake up early as a child to see her play in Hungary (2016) via broadcast I followed her. And I’m living it now with her. It's a feeling I can't explain and it's a feeling unique to me. 

IHF.info: Cinthya, most parents want their child to have their own direction. When Caroline became interested in Beach Handball, were you 100% behind her?

Cinthiya: She started out playing football, that’s what she wanted to do right at the beginning; she chose another type of sport. But then she wanted to play handball on her own. A lot of people thought she wanted it because of me, but it wasn’t the case. I said; ‘my dear, you have to pick what you want from the bottom of your heart – it’s all good with me’.

She played indoors and then Beach Handball, and I let her be, so she could pursue her happiness.

What really mattered to me was for her to be in sports, any one, because that’s how I lived my life. So, when she came to the one I chose, it was very good, very special and today, we play on the national team together.

IHF.info: Caroline, when you got the first call up for the national team what was your feeling and what was the first time you played together under the Brazil flag?

Caroline: The first tournament was last year at the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour in Brazil. It was a unique feeling; I even got a tattoo of the IHF Beach Handball Global Tour logo. It was my first championship representing our country as an adult and by her side. A dream we realised together. It meant a lot.

IHF.info: Cynthia, how did you feel when she became a Brazil player?

Cynthia: I usually say in jest that I thought I’d never live this dream, because it was something that was hard to attain. I knew she was at the level to play at any Brazilian time, but the national squad was very hard to get in.

I used to wish to keep myself in a constant state of sleep so I could dream that we were playing together but now it has happened. I just had to focus really hard on not getting the whole mother/daughter thing interfering with our performance in any of the matches. It worked.

Caroline: It was last year, it was the pinnacle, at the Global Tour, in Maricá. Yes, it was very special, it was at home, cheering with us, feeling this Brazilian vibe, it was very rewarding, it was very, very cool.

IHF.info: With Brazil are you teammates first and foremost, then mum-daughter number two, or the other way around?

Caroline: No, we are teammates, first and foremost. After all that, when it hurts deep inside, then comes ‘mother, I need you’ and she helps me.

Cynthia: So, when I need to pull the ear, then I pull it (laughs).

IHF.info: But when you win, you don’t pull the ear right? 

Cynthia: No. But we do give each other feedback, like ‘you’re better doing it this way’ and such. We help each other a lot.

Caroline: Mum: I help her, she helps me. We are always helping each other.

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A post shared by Cinthya Piquet (@cinthyapiquet)

IHF.info: Cynthia, what are the hopes for your daughter with this national team in the future?

Cynthia: I believe she will have many years ahead of her. She's going to be at the Paris 2024 Showcase and I'm going there to watch her. I think she just needs to be firm in her purpose and train, train, train, train, because I think her future, her presence, is very long in the national team.

God willing, her presence in the team will be like her mother's because I have been on the national team since 2005.

IHF.info: Caroline, your mum is a legend of Beach Handball, winning multiple titles over her career. When you look at her, what do you see? Do you see Mum or do you see a Beach Handball legend?

Caroline: I tell everybody that I’m her number one fan. Even more so for her dedication to the sport to which she devoted her entire life. I’ve always admired the discipline she’s shown all these years. I admire the athlete she is, alongside the wonderful mother she is.

IHF.info: What sort of advice would you give any other athletes in your situation, as a mother and daughter on the same team?

Caroline: So far, we have never seen it happen. Some people comment in our posts on the internet, but it is very rare. Good or bad, I became a Mum very early and that was good, because I'm here with her, and there's bad also because everything in life has a good part and a bad part. But I think this will be very difficult to happen again.

Cynthia: She likes it because everyone thinks she's my sister (laughs).

With thanks to Raul Cornejo for the translation.