“I was just excited to be there, competing in front of a home crowd,” Pereira told CNA previously.
But her 200m win in 2015 came with expectations.
“It created a lot of pressure and I feel like I didn’t have the experience to cope with it yet,” Pereira said.
3. She battled self-doubt, pressure and critics
The next edition of the Games in 2017 ended in tears for Pereira, as she finished with a pair of bronze medals in the 100m and 200m.
Then came two injuries in 2018, the year she was omitted from the Sport Excellence Scholarship programme. Within a week of that blow, she also lost a scholarship from her university after failing to maintain a minimum grade point average (GPA).
Some people began to write her off, said Pereira.
“Slowly, people just kind of lost faith in me. People have their opinions about my journey, and whatnot. I think, for a while there, I really did let it get to me, which is not ideal. I want to be in a state mentally strong and things like that don’t affect me, but for a while it really did.”