Marcus Vinicius D'Almeida

Lore & Background

D'Almeida first competed internationally in 2013. In 2014, he won three gold medals at the South American Games, breaking all South American records for 1440 Rounds, and qualified for the Archery World Cup Final as the second highest qualifier, winning a silver medal after losing to Brady Ellison in a shoot-off. That year he also won a silver medal in the individual competition at the Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing, where he served as Brazil's flagbearer. His rapid rise as a teenager earned him the nickname 'Archery's Neymar'.

At the 2019 Pan American Games, he won a silver medal, losing to Canadian Crispin Duenas 6–4. In the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, he defeated Sjef van den Berg to reach the round of 16, the best Olympic result for a Brazilian archer, before being eliminated by Mauro Nespoli, who hit all arrows in the central part of the target. In September 2021, D'Almeida won Brazil's first medal at the World Archery Championships, a silver, in a competition featuring all medalists from the Tokyo Olympics.

In June 2022, he reached fourth in the world ranking after winning the World Cup in Paris, where he defeated three Olympic champions. In 2023, he became the first Brazilian to lead the world ranking, won a World Cup stage in Shanghai, and took bronze at the World Championships in Berlin, defeating Arif Dwi Pangestu 6–4. Later that year, he won a bronze at the Paris World Cup stage and a gold at the World Cup Final in Hermosillo, defeating Lee Woo-seok 6–4. He was named world archer of the year for 2023 and received the Brazilian Olympic Committee award for best athlete.

In June 2024, he won a silver at the Antalya World Cup stage, losing to Kim Woo-jin in a tiebreaker arrow. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, he qualified 17th and lost 7–1 to Kim Woo-jin in the round of 16; Kim later became gold medalist. In September 2025, at the World Archery Championships, D'Almeida eliminated Kim Woo-jin 6–4 in the third round and won a silver medal, his third world championships medal. He also led Brazil to fourth place in the team event.

Teenage Breakthrough and the 'Archery's Neymar' Era

Marcus Vinicius Carvalho Lopes D'Almeida, born on 30 January 1998 in Rio de Janeiro, first stepped onto the international stage in 2013. The following year proved transformative: at the South American Games he claimed three gold medals and shattered every South American record in the 1440 Rounds discipline.

As the second-highest qualifier, he earned a spot at the 2014 Archery World Cup Final, where he captured silver after a shoot-off defeat to American Brady Ellison. That same year, in Nanjing, China, the sixteen-year-old served as Brazil's flagbearer at the Summer Youth Olympics and brought home an individual silver medal. His meteoric ascent through the sport's upper tiers while still a teenager earned him the moniker 'Archery's Neymar,' a comparison that underscored both his extraordinary talent and the nation's hunger for a homegrown star in a sport long dominated by Asian and European archers.

Olympic Campaigns – Pioneering and Heartbreak

At the Tokyo 2020 Games, D'Almeida etched his name into Brazilian archery history by defeating Dutch archer Sjef van den Berg to reach the round of 16, the deepest any Brazilian archer had ever advanced at the Olympics. His elimination came at the hands of Italy's Mauro Nespoli, who would go on to claim Olympic silver, hitting every arrow in the 9 or 10 ring. Four years later in Paris, the narrative took a different turn.

Struggling in the ranking round, D'Almeida qualified only 17th, which forced an 'early final' against world number two, South Korea's Kim Woo-jin, in the round of 16. Kim was virtually flawless, striking nearly every arrow dead center, and dispatched Marcus 7-1 before ultimately taking the gold. Despite the painful scoreline, both Olympic appearances marked a new ceiling for Brazilian recurve archery on the sport's biggest stage.

World Championship Medals and World Cup Mastery

In September 2021, D'Almeida became the first Brazilian ever to medal at the World Archery Championships, taking silver in a field that included every Tokyo Olympic medalist. His 2022 campaign saw him claim the World Cup title in Paris, defeating three Olympic champions—two of them South Korean—to climb to fourth in the world ranking.

The 2023 season was a masterclass: a second World Cup crown in Shanghai, a bronze at the Berlin World Championships (beating Indonesia's Arif Dwi Pangestu 6-4), a bronze at the Paris World Cup stage, and the career-defining gold at the World Cup Final in Hermosillo, Mexico, where he outshot South Korea's Lee Woo-seok 6-4. In June 2024, a silver in Antalya, Turkey, saw him lose to three-time world champion Kim Woo-jin on a tiebreaker arrow. Then, in September 2025, he secured his third World Championship medal—silver—after eliminating Kim Woo-jin 6-4 in the third round on Korean soil, and guided Brazil to fourth in the team event.

Historic Firsts and National Recognition

February 2023 marked a watershed moment: D'Almeida became the first Brazilian in history to top the world archery ranking in the recurve category, a position that had eluded the nation for decades. That achievement was capped by the World Archery Federation naming him the best archer of the year in 2023, while the Brazilian Olympic Committee separately honored him as the country's top athlete for the same period. The 'Archery's Neymar' label, coined during his teenage breakthrough, had by then evolved from a catchy comparison into a fitting descriptor of a player who carried enormous national expectations and delivered on the world's biggest stages. From flagbearer at the 2014 Youth Olympics to the global ranking leader, his trajectory compressed what typically takes a generation of Brazilian archers into a single career, redefining what the sport could mean for a nation whose Olympic archery tradition had previously peaked at a round-of-16 appearance.

Reader's Guide

Marcus D'Almeida's career marks a series of firsts for Brazilian archery. He was the first Brazilian to lead the world ranking in recurve archery, achieved in February 2023, and the first Brazilian to win a medal at the World Archery Championships, a silver in 2021. His three world championships medals—silver in 2021, bronze in 2023, and silver in 2025—represent the only world championship medals for Brazil in the sport. His Olympic performance in Tokyo 2020, reaching the round of 16, was the best result by a Brazilian archer in Olympic history.

D'Almeida's 2023 season included winning the World Cup Final in Hermosillo, Mexico, which he described as the most important title of his career, and being named world archer of the year by the World Archery Federation. He also received the Brazilian Olympic Committee's award for best athlete in the country in 2023. His rivalry with South Korean Kim Woo-jin, whom he defeated at the 2025 World Championships in the opponent's homeland, has been a recurring narrative in his career. D'Almeida's achievements have established him as a central figure in the sport's international landscape.