Falavigna was born in
Maringá, and grew up in another city in the
Paraná state,
Londrina. At the age of four, she saw
judokaAurélio Miguel win a gold medal in the
1988 Summer Olympics and was inspired to become an athlete.[5] She practiced volleyball, basketball, soccer, swimming, and the first she dedicated the most, handball. In 1998, Falavigna was introduced by a friend to
taekwondo, and while the first classes were "by impulse", the coach said Falavigna had potential and could become world champion. Two years later, she won the World Junior Taekwondo Championships in Ireland, becoming the first Brazilian to do so.[6] In the four years that followed, Falavigna ended up on the top three in 9 of the 11 international competitions she entered. In 2003, Falavigna entered a state of depression and even considered trading taekwondo for tennis, but found a new strength to the sport after winning silver at the
2003 Summer Universiade.[5]
Achievements
Natália Falavigna won the following competitions:[2]
In 2000, two years after starting practicing taekwondo, Falavigna won the World Youth Taekwondo Championship, held in
Killarney,
Republic of Ireland.[3][14] It was the first international tournament that she participated in.[3]
Natália Falavigna competed for the first time in the Olympics in 2004, when she finished in the fourth place in the competition. She was defeated in the semifinal by
ChineseChen Zhong. In the
Repechage semifinals she defeated
ItalianDaniela Castrignano, but was beaten by
VenezuelanAdriana Carmona in the bronze medal match.[16]
The 2008 Olympic Games, held in Beijing, China, was Natália Falavigna's second participation in the Olympics. In the first stage, she defeated 3–1 the Greek
Kyriaki Kouvari.[22] In the quarterfinals, Natália Falavigna beat the Australian
Carmen Marton 5–2,[23] but she was defeated by
Nina Solheim of Norway in the semifinals.[24] Falavigna won the bronze medal after beating the Swedish
Karolina Kedzierska 5–2 in the bronze medal match of the Repechage.[25] Natália Falavigna's bronze medal was Brazil's first Olympic medal ever in taekwondo.[4]