Dora Varella Gallacci Pereira (born 31 July 2001) is a Brazilian professional skateboarder. She has competed in women's park events at several World Skateboarding Championships, finishing 15th in 2018 and sixth in 2019.
Early life Varella began participating in the sport at the age of 10, after watching one of her cousins practise and asking her parents for a skateboard of her own. In January 2019, aged 17, she became a professional athlete affiliated with the Brazilian Confederation of Skateboarding.
Career
2016 In 2016, Varella received the first invitation of her career to compete at the X Games.
2021: Olympic debut
After the last Olympic qualifying championship held in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, in May 2021, Dora Varella officially qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Varella participated in the women's park event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, finishing seventh in the finals. Heading into the games, she ranked ninth in the Olympic World Skateboarding Rankings for women's park.
2022 In 2022, Varella and Yndiara Asp, together with Sakura Yosozumi, Kokona Hiraki, Sky Brown, Poppy Olsen and Bryce Wettstein, received the International Fair Play Committee's (IFPC) Fair Play Award from the International Olympic Committee for their display of sportsmanship during the 2020 Summer Olympics. The award recognized the group's support for Japanese skateboarder Misugu Okamoto after her fall in the women's park final.
In 2022, Varella became the first Brazilian woman to complete both a domestic and an international MegaPark. She first completed Gui Khury's MegaPark in Curitiba, an eight-metre-high course combining elements of a mega ramp and a skatepark, where she also became the first Brazilian woman to land a 360-degree spin over the gap. Later that year, she completed Elliot Sloan's MegaPark in California, including its return section. At the time, only a small number of female skateboarders had successfully completed a full MegaPark course, making Varella one of the first women to do so.
2024 Returning in the 2024 Paris Olympics, she finished fourth in the finals.
2025 In November, Varella won the women’s title of the 2025 Mini Ramp Pro Attack in her hometown of São Paulo, with a final score of 86,45.
2026: STU National champion In March, Varella competed at the 2025 world skateboarding championship, which had been postponed from the previous year and happened in her hometown of São Paulo. She finished her participation in ninth place in the semifinals, just short of qualifying for the final, with a score of 72.25, while the eighth qualified skateboarder, Japanese Hiraki Cocona, scored 72.44.
In June, Varella won the women’s park event at the STU National stage in Cuiabá, her first STU National title in three years. She scored 80.59 points in the final, becoming the only finalist to surpass the 80 point mark, and finished ahead of Fernanda Galdino and Manuela Tomitake.
In July, with a score of 89.07 at the women’s park event of the STU National stage in Slavador, Varella became the champion of this stage and of the overall 2026 STU National season.
Achievements
National
Brazilian Bowl Championship – CBSK (2015) Vans Park Series Women's National Championships – Brazil (2017) Brazilian Park Championship (2020) STU National – Brazil (2021) STU National – Criciúma (2023) STU National – Cuiabá (2026) STU National – Salvador (2026)
International
Girls Vans Combi Pool Classic – USA: category 14 & under (2016) Girls Vans Combi Pool Classic – USA: category 15 & over (2017 & 2018) STU Open Rio (2023)
Pan American
Vans Park Series Women's Continental Championships – United States (2017 and 2018)
References
External links Dora Varella at The Boardr