Alessandra Vieira

Alessandra Vieira de Souza was born on March 14, 1976, in São Pedro dos Ferros, Minas Gerais, Brazil.[1] At the age of 16, after an ACL injury forced her to take time away from handball, she started training Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) under Aloisio Silva, a Carlos Gracie's black belt, founder of Dojo jiu-jitsu and one of the first BJJ masters to teach women.[4] She was promoted to blue belt after six months of training and two years later was a finalist at the 1994 Brazilian National Championship winning silver. She was promoted to black belt by Silva in 1998 then won the 1999 World Jiu-Jitsu Championship a year later, becoming the first female black belt world champion.[1][lower-alpha 3] She won silver at the 2000 World Championship in the featherweight division,[6][lower-alpha 4] then the following year, she won gold at the Pan American Championship. In 2001 she was invited to help start a women's only class at Rigan Machado's academy which resulted in her move to California and representing Machado JJ in competition.[8]

In 2002, Vieira won the World Championship and the Pan American in the same year.[9] After promoting Cindy Omatsu in 2002, she became the first woman to promote another woman to BJJ black belt.[lower-alpha 5][10] She won the Pan championship again in 2003 in the featherweight division.[lower-alpha 4] In 2005, she faced Kyra Gracie in the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship final losing on points after a 16-minute match for the woman's under 60 kilograms (130 lb) title;.[11] that same year, representing Gracie Humaitá, Vieira won the World Championship for the third time after defeating Kyra Gracie in the lightweight final.[lower-alpha 6][13] In 2004, Vieira opened her own school out of Torrance, California.[14] In 2015, she opened CheckMat Valencia an affiliate of Checkmat.[15] In 2014, she became a member of Black Belt Magazine hall of fame after being chosen as Competitor of the Year.[16]

In 2018, Vieira launched the Wonder Woman BJJ Project, a program to help promote and expand the role of women in jiu-jitsu.[10] In 2019 Vieira returned to competition to win the Pan Masters championship in the featherweight division.[2] In March 2022, she received her 6th degree from Léo Vieira,[3][17] and was inducted in the United States Martial Art Hall of Fame.[3]

Vieira's jiu-jitsu instructor lineage can be traced from Carlos Gracie Sr, one of the founders of the art, to Grand Master Aloísio Silva (7th degree):[1][19]

Mitsuyo Maeda > Carlos Gracie Sr. > Robson Gracie > Aloísio Silva > Leka Vieira[1]