Sarah Galvão

Sarah Cabral Firme Galvão was born in July 2006 in Ubatuba, on the coast of São Paulo state, Brazil, and was raised from age 3 in San Diego, California, home of the Atos headquarters, the team founded by her parents, André and Angelica Galvão. She took her first Jiu-Jitsu class at 4, as the first student in the academy’s kids program, but spent her childhood between gymnastics, dance and tennis.

In 2019 she entered the Kids Pans as a gray belt and lost in the final. She kept training and, after earning her blue belt, decided to pursue a career as an athlete. In 2022, as a juvenile, she won Europeans, Pans, the Brazilian Nationals and Worlds in both her weight class and the open class. She repeated the IBJJF Grand Slam in each of the next three years and finished all four seasons ranked No. 1 at her belt.

At 18, still a brown belt, she debuted in the AJP’s professional division, which combines brown and black belts, and in 2024 won the Rio de Janeiro Grand Slam and the Abu Dhabi World Pro.

Her black belt came in May 2025, during Worlds in Long Beach, from her parents, on the day she won the brown belt lightweight title. At the new rank she won the American Nationals and the Asian Championship, reached the final of the CJI 2 women’s Grand Prix, where she was submitted by Helena Crevar, and won the No-Gi Pans at middleweight. In November, at 19, she won the lightweight title at The Crown: she submitted Brianna Ste-Marie, got past Cassia Moura by referee decision and beat Janaína Lebre in the final by one advantage.

In 2026 she won Europeans at lightweight and took silver in the open class, in a final decided by one advantage in favor of Gabi Pessanha. At Pans she took double gold: she beat Janaína Lebre in the lightweight final, by referee decision, and Gabi Pessanha in the open class final, 6-0. At the Brazilian Nationals she won lightweight and took silver in the open class. At Worlds she lost the lightweight final to Janaína, again by referee decision. In the open class she was stopped in the semifinal by Tayane Porfírio and ended up with silver in the official IBJJF result, after Tayane’s results from that day were disqualified for an anti-doping violation.

In June she won lightweight at the American Nationals and lost the open class semifinal to Ághata Rabelo on points. In September she was ADCC runner-up in Kraków, Poland, in the under-65 kg (143 lb) division, submitted by Ana Vieira in the final. In October she won six matches at the No-Gi Pans and left with gold at middleweight and in the open class, her first double gold at a no-gi tournament, according to the IBJJF. On the same day her father, André Galvão, took silver at super-heavyweight at age 44.