The 2024 season continues to shine for Mica Galvao.
Following his victory at the European Championship in January, Galvao added yet another medal to his collection – by winning the IBJJF 2024 Jiu-Jitsu Pan title.
However, he recently revealed that the journey to victory was full of obstacles.
A day before the tournament, Galvao fell ill after dining out and suffered from an intestinal infection.
Dehydrated and in discomfort throughout the night, he nearly missed out on competing on Saturday.
Despite battling through adversity, the young black belt encountered yet another setback in his first match when he injured his foot:
Despite having studied my first opponent and knowing that he had good attacks on the feet, I ended up letting go at the beginning of the fight and I got a fair shot.
At the time, I felt a little [pop], but I managed to escape and managed to win by submission.
Leaving the mats, I thought I had broken my foot because I couldn’t step on the floor.I iced it, took medicine, but the pain didn’t go away and that’s how I slept, without being able to step on the ground and not knowing if I could fight.
Galvao improvised by bandaging both feet to provide stability:
I bought bandages and applied them to both feet to try to confuse my opponents and give my base a little firmness.
I depend a lot on my feet in the game, because I like to do a lot of movement, but I had to play a more composed game and not force myself to step on the ground so much, and that was the case in all three fights I had.
Fight for fight, I did what had to be done to try to win and, thanks to God and Him alone, I did it.
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