Clarissa Cristina dos Santos (born March 10, 1988) is a Brazilian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player previously played for the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 20 ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA).. Most recently she has played for Basket Landes in the Euroleague Women.

Early life and career

She began practicing sports at 13 on the

Miécimo da Silva Sports Complex The Miécimo da Silva Olympic Boulevard, originally Miécimo da Silva Sports Center (in Portuguese: "Centro Esportivo Miécimo da Silva"), is a city-owned Olympic-grade multi-sports complex in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro. Sporting swimming poo ...

, and one day, as the basketball court was right along the athletics field where she practiced

discus throw The discus throw (), also known as disc throw, is a track and field event in which an athlete throws a heavy disk (mathematics), disc—called a discus—in an attempt to mark a farther distance than their competitors. It is an classical antiqui ...

Santos was invited to play that sport. Eventually it became her priority. In 2005, she joined the young teams of the club, and one year later was already in the adult team of

Fluminense Fluminense Football Club (), known as Fluminense, is a Brazilian sports club best known for its professional football team that competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the first tier of Brazilian football and the Campeonato Carioca, th ...

Player profile

Clarissa excelled at rebounds, a statistic she topped in the Brazilian championship for two straight years. She was champion in 2012 with the Americana team. She is tall.

National Team and international competition

For the Brazil women's national basketball team, Clarissa won a bronze medal at the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games, was an international multi-sport event that was held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby cities of Ciudad Guzmán, ...

, and was champion of the 2011 FIBA Americas Championship for Women which qualified Brazil for the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. In the women's event, Brazil fell at the group stage with only one win, but Santos lead the rebounds statistic. She was also part of the Brazilian team that played at the

Rio Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Santos, Clarissa 1988 births Living people Basketball players at the 2011 Pan American Games Basketball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2019 Pan American Games Brazilian expatriate basketball people in the United States Brazilian women's basketball players Chicago Sky players Olympic basketball players for Brazil Pan American Games bronze medalists for Brazil Pan American Games medalists in basketball Power forwards (basketball) Basketball players from Rio de Janeiro (city) Medalists at the 2019 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games