Following the hiring of Scientific Coordinator Carolina Franco and psychologist Paulo Gasparini, CUIDAR (Unified Center for the Identification and Development of Performance Athletes) announced that Dr. Claudio Cardone will take over as Medical Coordinator starting in July. With a Master's degree in Clinical Medicine from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Cardone joined Mais Querido seven years ago.

"I've been with the club since the 2011/12 season, initially hired to oversee the men's adult basketball team, where I remained throughout a very successful campaign. This season, I received an invitation from CUIDAR Management, through Izabel Miranda, to take on the role of Medical Coordinator for Olympic Sports, which made me very happy and honored by the challenge," said Cardone. 

He has experience working for the Brazilian Football Confederation as a member of the Doping Control Commission and the Brazilian Aquatics Sports Confederation as Medical Director. At Rubro-Negro, he now serves as Coordinator.

"Providing care for Olympic sports has always been part of my work as a sports physician. This new role will allow me to develop a field I strongly believe in, where the priority will be the integration of the medical field with technical professionals from various sports, allowing for more preventative rather than curative care for athletes," he stated.

"I will continue working with basketball, but now I will also coordinate and support other sports, alongside the other medical professionals on the CUIDAR team. I believe I am prepared and motivated for this new and significant challenge in my career, especially since it involves a club that has been doing a tremendous amount of work in this area of ​​healthcare and athlete performance," concluded Dr. Cardone.

Flamengo's Sports Science Manager, Izabel Miranda, was the founder of CUIDAR and is the face behind all of the center's departments. She was the one who invited me to pursue the professional career.

"Having a Medical Coordinator with Dr. Cardone's level of knowledge and experience adds value to multidisciplinary work, to interdisciplinary exchanges to improve sports performance and to the prevention process, which is our goal in the healthcare field," commented Izabel.

“We hope that with the Medicine, Performance, Physiotherapy and Education and Socio-professional Integration Coordinations we can improve our internal processes for the comprehensive development of athletes for high performance.”

Launched in October 2016, CUIDAR was a milestone in Flamengo's Olympic sports program, formalizing a program focused on supporting coaches' decision-making. The center now has 35 qualified professionals working to promote the comprehensive development of high-performance athletes.

CUIDAR is divided into four areas: Administrative and Operational; Performance, which includes Physical Preparation, Nutrition and Sports Psychology; Support for Socio-professional Insertion; and Health, divided between Sports Physiotherapy and Sports Medicine, under the coordination, from now on, of Dr. Cláudio Cardone.