On Saturday morning (22), in Gávea, Flamengo inaugurated the Espaço Cuidar (Unified Center for Identification and Development of Performance Athletes) and launched the Anjo da Guarda Rubro-Negro Project. CUIDAR, which will be located under the stands of the club's new Olympic pool, aims to further leverage the proposal that was launched in December 2015 with the main objective of improving sports interdisciplinarity, combining athlete training with work from various areas related to sports science that, working together, can complement each individual's development. Anjo da Guarda Rubro-Negro's main focus, on developing citizens through sports, counting on donations of part of the fans' income tax - who do not spend a single cent more for this.

In addition to training athletes, always extracting their maximum, CUIDAR will also develop the professionals involved in honing new talent, standardizing methodologies and always aiming for medium- and long-term planning. 

"Today is a historic and significant day for all of us, as we are inaugurating our center of excellence in sports. This center was a dream of ours, and today it is coming to fruition after much effort and hard work. This center brings together all the possibilities you need to achieve the best performance in sports. It also represents much more than a set of equipment and people. Excellence in sports is a philosophy. To better follow this philosophy, we brought in Izabel, who came to help implement CUIDAR," said Eduardo Bandeira de Mello, president of Clube de Regatas do Flamengo.

The president also took the opportunity to highlight the importance of Márcio Braga, as he was the club's pioneer in seeking resources through sponsorships and incentives.

Alexandre Póvoa, the club's vice president of Olympic Sports, also spoke about the project.

"Being self-sustainable in Olympic sports has always been our dream. It's not enough to just pay salaries on time; that's nothing more than an obligation. After a long time, we've managed to establish the four pillars to make Flamengo's Olympic Sports self-sustainable. These four pillars are: budgetary financial balance, which we achieved thanks to incentive laws and through our sponsors; infrastructure for training. Today, for example, we have Olympic-level facilities; fighting spirit; and the ability to prepare athletes from preschool to adulthood, covering everything they need, such as psychology, physiology, nutrition, etc. The Rio Olympic cycle ends, and now the Tokyo cycle begins. This center of excellence is the tip of the iceberg. iceberg of everything we worked on in this Olympic cycle", commented Póvoa.