Ana Paula Rodrigues Connelly Henkel (born 13 February 1972 in

Lavras Lavras is a municipality in southern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. Located at an altitude of 919 m, it has a population of 104,783 inhabitants (2020). The area of the municipality is 564.495 km2. The average annual temperature is 19.6°C and t ...

Minas Gerais Minas Gerais () is a state in Southeastern Brazil. It ranks as the second most populous, the third by gross domestic product (GDP), and the fourth largest by area in the country. The state's capital and largest city, Belo Horizonte (literally ...

) is a retired female

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

player and journalist from

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, who represented her native country at four

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

: in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

and

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, and in beach volleyball in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

and

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. With

Brazil women's national volleyball team The Brazil women's national volleyball team is administrated by the ''Confederação Brasileira de Voleibol'' (CBV) and takes part in international volleyball competitions. It is ranked second in the FIVB World Rankings as of August 2021. They are ...

, she won three World Grand Prix editions and got medals in various tournaments, including the 1996 Olympics in the United States and the

1994 FIVB Volleyball Women's World Championship The 1994 FIVB Women's World Championship was the twelfth edition of the tournament, organised by the world's governing body, the FIVB. It was held from 17 to 30 October 1994 in São Paulo and Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Teams ;Group A * * * * ...

in Japan. On the beach, she won the

FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour The FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour (known between 2003 and 2012 as the FIVB Beach Volleyball Swatch World Tour for sponsorship reasons) was the worldwide professional beach volleyball tour for both men and women organized by the ' ( FIVB), the ...

in 2003 (alongside

Sandra Pires Sandra Pires Tavares (born June 16, 1973, in Rio de Janeiro) is a female beach volleyball player from Brazil, who won the gold medal in the inaugural women's beach volleyball tournament at the 1996 Summer Olympics, partnering Jackie Silva. She ...

) and 2008 (with

Shelda Bede Shelda Kelly Bruno Bede (born January 1, 1973) is a retired beach volleyball player from Brazil. She was born in Fortaleza, and won silver medals in beach volleyball at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athe ...

). After retiring from volleyball in 2010, she moved to Los Angeles, California, where she majored in architecture at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

and is now studying to get a master's degree in political science. Noted for her conservative views, she had a column in newspaper ''

O Estado de S. Paulo ''O Estado de S. Paulo'' (; ), also known as ''Estadão'' (; ), is a daily newspaper published in São Paulo, Brazil. It is the third largest newspaper in Brazil, and its format changed from broadsheet to berliner on October 17, 2021. It has t ...

'' and joined news station

Jovem Pan Jovem Pan is the main Brazilian radio station based in São Paulo, Brazil. It is also the largest network of radio stations of the southern hemisphere, of Latin Americaand one of the biggest radio stations in the world.The network has several bu ...

Personal life

She has been married three times, first to basketballer Jeffty Connelly from 1994 to 1998, and then to volleyball coach Marcus Miranda, with whom she had a son. Since 2010, she has been married to attorney and retired beach volleyballer Carl Henkel. She was considering a fifth Olympic appearance in

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

, but retired as she was developing

panic disorder Panic disorder is a mental disorder, mental and Abnormal behavior, behavioral disease#Disorder, disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by reoccurring unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear th ...

and started resenting being too absent for her son.Síndrome do pânico fez Ana Paula desistir de sua quinta Olimpíada
Universo Online

References

UOL profile

External links

* * * * *
Ana Paula Henkel's political column

1972 births Living people Brazilian people of German descent Brazilian women's volleyball players Brazilian women's beach volleyball players Olympic volleyball players of Brazil Olympic beach volleyball players of Brazil Olympic bronze medalists for Brazil Olympic medalists in volleyball Volleyball players at the 1992 Summer Olympics Volleyball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Beach volleyball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Brazilian expatriates in the United States Brazilian anti-communists People from Lavras University of California, Los Angeles alumni Sportspeople from Minas Gerais {{Brazil-volleyball-bio-stub