Ana Carolina Vieira

The 2022 medium-heavyweight world final ended with 50 seconds still on the clock. Ana Carolina Vieira pulled Luciana Mota into closed guard, swept, passed, mounted and locked a head and arm choke, closing out her fifth black belt world title. Earlier in the same tournament she had lost to Amy Campo in the open class. In her weight division she met the American again in the quarterfinals and won, before beating Fernanda Cristo 7-0 in the semifinal.

She was born on November 19, 1993, in Rio de Janeiro, the younger sister of Rodolfo Vieira. She had a short spell in capoeira, started Jiu-Jitsu at around 14, stopped and came back at 17 after watching her brother compete. Her first coach was Gabriel Marinho at ProCombat. She then moved to GF Team headquarters to train under Julio Cesar Pereira, who gave her a black belt in June 2016.

At black belt she won Worlds in 2017, 2018 and 2019, adding an open class bronze in 2018. After the pandemic break she was back on top in December 2021 with medium-heavyweight gold, and in 2022 she won the title again, with another open class bronze. At Pans she won in 2021 and 2023.

At the 2023 Pans, besides the weight class title, she armbarred Tamiris Silva and choked Ffion Davies from the back in the open class before losing the final to Gabi Pessanha. At that year’s Worlds she took bronze at medium-heavyweight and again reached the open class final against Gabi, which she lost by submission. Ana later said she had tapped before going out and that she suffered a concussion, and she has not competed at IBJJF events since.

Away from the federation’s tournaments, she found ADCC. In 2024, in Las Vegas, she won the 65 kg division, beating Helena Crevar in overtime in the final. In 2026, in Kraków, she won the title again with three victories, one of them a submission of Sarah Galvão. She now runs Aviv Jiu-Jitsu in Florida with Luanna Alzuguir.