Rio de Janeiro native Rafaela Silva, 24, has won the host nation's first gold medal of the Rio 2016 Games today (8 August) beating Mongolia's Sumiya Dorjsuren of Mongolia in the -57kg final. Silva scored waza-ari over Dorjsuren with a throw a little over a minute into the final and was able to hold on to that lead amid deafening cheering from the stands.

Five things you didn't know about Rafaela Silva

Silva beats the Mongolian world no.1 in front of her home crowd at the Carioca Arena 2 (Getty Images/David Ramos)

The Brazilian judoka was disqualified in the early rounds at London 2012. The referees decided that Silva, who had actually won the match, applied a blow that is no longer allowed under the new rules of judo.

Born in the notorious City of God community in Rio de Janeiro, Rafaela had the strong support of the fans in the Carioca Arena 2, and especially from her family who were there to support her. 

"It really helped me with momentum and the pressure against my opponents. The stadium was shaking, everybody was screaming and cheering me up every minute."

Rafaela Silva (Getty Images/David Ramos)

"I want to thank everyone who cheered for me. The people who saw my suffering daily know I did not like to train. But I think no one has trained more than me in this Olympic cycle," said the champion to Globo afterwards.

"I'm very happy about the result. I've been training a lot these last few years and the results are showing."

The Silva family react after a historic victory for Brazil (Rio2016/Andre Naddeo)

Rafaela's father, Luiz Carlos, declined to attend his daughter's preliminary fights, citing nervousness. But he was there today for the semi-final and the final, sitting next to wife Zenilda and their judoka niece Ana Carolina. 

"It's not because it's my daughter, but she deserves this a lot. She is a good person, humble," Silva's mother said excitedly. "She deserves this. She is a unique warrior. A warrior of gold."

Silva received hundreds of messages of support following her disqualification in 2012, but one particular row involving an internet troll who tweeted in Portuguese: “the place of a monkey is in a cage (lugar de macaca é na jaula)”, caused the most upset.

"In London they called my daughter a monkey," said a jubilant Mrs Silva this evening. "Now we are here..."

Dorjsuren's silver medal was the first Olympic judo medal for a Mongolian woman, while London 2012 Olympic Games champion Kaori Matsumoto had to content herself with bronze this time after losing to Dorjsuren in the semi-final. Telma Monteiro claimed the other bronze medal.

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