Nick Harding | @nickhdg | Sportscene - Ana Sátila, the talented and rapidly improving 17-year old Brazilian paddler, could be the most in-demand athlete canoeing has ever seen at the next Olympics in Rio 2016.

She is the first female paddler for Brazil representing a major milestone in gender equality and the success of its youth talent identification programmes.

Ana competes in K1W and C1W, so she has versatility in her skillset, but also the capacity to really excel at elite level in both classes. Ana's performances keep on improving too; she's getting noticed by federations as one of the ones to watch out for:

K1W World Cups this year:
La Seu D'Urgell - 33rd and 35th in the Heats, Augsburg – 26th in semis, Cardiff – exactly 34th in both Heats

C1W World Cups this year:
La Seu D'Urgell – semifinalist; 16th, Augsburg – into semi-finals finishing a proud 12th, Cardiff – got to 19th in the semis

Junior Worlds

Some tell-tell signs that Ana could hit her career peak in Rio:

Yesterday she finished third overall in the K1W Junior Heats following a 115.78 run with 2 penalties putting herself in good stead for today's semi-finals. However, it wasn't so earlier on this afternoon as she slipped out of qualifying and  into 13th with 2 penalties; +14.97 from leader Kimberley Woods (GBR).

In C1W Junior it was a similar story on Thursday: 7th in Heat 1 and up to 3rd  in Heat 2. A fairytale ending it was though in C1W this afternoon; +0.47-of-a-second behind double-win-for Kimberley Woods into the number 2 slot.

Fingers and toes crossed for a podium finish in tomorrow's final.

Background

Ana heralds from the inland city of Iturama in Minas Gerais county and trains and lives permanently with the Brazilian national team nearly 800km away at Foz do Iguaçu, home of the 5th largest waterfall in the world by width and a stone-throw away from one of the world's largest dams, Itaipu.

After being engrossed in swimming as a child, Ana aged 9 started to kayak in her local area at Primavera do Leste. Young Sátila went onto win the Brazilian National Championship when only 12.

She qualified for the London 2012 Olympics in K1W as one of the youngest participating females when she was only 15. Ana did well in the Heats but finished up in 16th place which meant she didn't qualify for the semi-finals.

Ana has been coached by Italian Ettore Ivaldi, ex-national K1 slalom paddler who earned silver in K1 team at the 1989 World Championships – part of her secret weapon, the others are her ability to weight-lift twice her body weight and her mental determination to train.

Why the surge in Ana's popularity?

With home support at Rio 2016, Ana will become a household name and face of canoeing worldwide. 

Brazil, in 2012, was recorded as being the 5th most populated country in the world, that's potentially 192 million people who will be rooting for Ana at the 2016 summer Olympics! Not forgetting the millions more Brazilians that reside overseas predominantly in the US, Paraguay, Japan as well Portugal, Spain, Italy, the UK, France, Germany, Australia and Canada – a truly global following!

Ana's good with media too; charismatic, smiley, her English is fast-improving and she is more than happy to chat to us 'journos'. In 2016 Ana will be 20 and the cameras will undoubtedly play to her good looks as well.

Her age and the fact she is a Brazilian female, a nation traditionally less-established in slalom but with a substantial presence now in Paracanoe thanks to Fernando Fernandes, has meant she has been fortunate enough to have had the support of the Brazilian Ministry of Sport, corporate investors and boat manufacturers Nelo.

Jessica Ennis was Britain's poster girl for the London 2012 Olympics, putting aside the huge public pressure on her she went onto to win gold in the Heptathlon. Can Ana do the same for Brazil in C1 or K1 in 3 years time?

Download Results Day 1, 2 and 3