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 Daniele was already
a national champion at the tender age of 12 ,and a mild
buzz started to develop around this compact athlete after
her success on the Pan American scene. From an economically
humble background, Daniele's gymnastics has helped her
family, which includes her two brothers, to a better life.
 In the spring of
1997, disaster struck. Daniele and her team mates were
on their way to a competition in Curitiba when their bus
was involved in a crash that killed seven people. Many
others were injured, one of them, Georgette Vidor one
of Hypolito's coaches, remains confined to a wheelchair.
 1999 saw the Brazilian
team being recognised as a possible force to at the World
Championships in Tianjin. Their 18th place did not earn
them a team berth but the country did have the right to
send two individuals to compete in the Sydney Olympics.
One of them was Hypolito.
 Things were going
well until the vaulting fiasco that will forever cast
a shadow over the Games. One of the gymnasts who vaulted
over the horse at the wrong height, Daniele was also one
of the ones who was asked if she wanted to re-vault. She
reportedly told the WTC member asking she did want to
re-vault. Whether she was misunderstood or whether it
was an oversight - her name did not appear on the list
of the gymnasts who would compete in the historic fifth
rotation. Despite already being on the podium, ready for
her one touch warm-up, Daniele was ordered down again
and not allowed to re-vault.
 In Ghent, she finally
made the splash she has been capable of for a long time:
4th AA and a silver medal on floor certainly show the
world she's arrived. She celebrated her brilliant AA showing
by collapsing into new head coach's Oleg Ostapenko's arms
after her beam routine. Ostapenko, formerly head coach
of the Ukrainian women, has never been renowned as overly
emotional making the gesture even more special. But then,
Hypolito's personality is hard to resist.
john
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