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Born to Hurdle: The Definitive Profile of Pietra Campbell Simões, Brazil’s Record-Breaking Young Hurdler

Some athletes find their sport. Pietra Campbell Simões was born into hers. The story of how a girl from Brasília became the fastest Sub-18 100-meter hurdler in Brazilian history is inseparable from the story of a family whose entire life orbits around the track — a family in which athletic ambition was literally passed from one generation to the next before Pietra even drew her first breath.

A Family Built on Athletics: Before the Beginning

Pietra Campbell Simões’s parents, Hebert Gustavo Simões and Carmem Silva Grubert Campbell, are both lifelong athletes and academics. Hebert, who holds a post-doctorate in exercise physiology and training science, has been competing in hurdle events since his adolescence. He is a professor at the Universidade Católica de Brasília and the author of nearly 300 published academic articles. Carmem, who also completed her post-doctorate and has more than 170 scientific publications to her name, is equally steeped in the sport. As competitive athletes in the master category, both parents are as at home on the track as they are in the classroom.

When Carmem discovered she was pregnant with Pietra, she did not stop training. Because her pregnancy carried no medical risk, she maintained a lighter version of her regular routine on the track throughout. “When I found out I was pregnant, since it wasn’t a high-risk pregnancy, I continued training, just in a lighter way. And when she was born, I quickly got back to my weight. In two months I was training normally again,” she recalled. That detail — perhaps the most striking in a biography full of striking details — became the symbolic foundation of the entire story: Pietra Campbell Simões had “known” the track before she knew the world.

When Pietra was born, the couple already had a son, Luca Campbell Simões, two years her senior, who was also being raised in this intensely athletic household. Both children grew up traveling to competitions with their parents, playing in the sandpit near the long jump pit and running in diapers on the track while their mother and father competed. The athleticism in that household was not merely genetic — it was environmental, structural, daily.

Given all of this, it might seem inevitable that Pietra would become a hurdler. But the path was not entirely predetermined. As a child, she was drawn to football (soccer) and at one point found volleyball more appealing than athletics. It was her father who nudged her toward the track in a concrete way, convincing her to enter the state selection process for the Jogos Escolares (School Games) in 2018, when she was twelve years old. She placed fifth that year. In 2019, she returned, qualified, and placed third in her category at the games in Blumenau, Santa Catarina. “That’s when everything changed,” she recalled.

The epigenetic explanation — that environmental stimuli can activate genetic tendencies — is something Hebert has cited in describing his children’s development. Having spent their entire lives around hurdle athletes, in training environments shaped by two expert coaches who also happened to be their parents, both Luca and Pietra had absorbed the biomechanics, the competitive rhythms, and the discipline of the event before they had the vocabulary to describe it.

Brasília and Colégio Católica: Building the Foundation

Brasília, the planned capital city of Brazil, is an unlikely breeding ground for athletics talent by comparison to São Paulo or Rio de Janeiro, which have more established club infrastructure. But the city has produced exceptional athletes, and in Pietra’s case, the combination of family coaching, academic environment at the Colégio Católica Brasília, and affiliation with elite club programs filled the gap. Her school, part of the Catholic University of Brasília (UCB) group, became an extension of her athletic development — a place where she balanced morning academics with afternoon track sessions.

Hebert’s role as her primary coach was a unique asset. “Besides having practical experience specifically in hurdles, he has a post-doctorate in exercise physiology and training. My parents were athletes, so they always give tips and training ideas that worked for them. I receive individualized treatment, plus attention to everyday details like sleep and nutrition,” Pietra told the Colégio Católica’s communications team in 2023.

As Luca and Pietra began to distinguish themselves in competition, Hebert found himself coaching not just his own children but a broader group of young athletes who gathered around the family’s training environment. “Luca and Pietra started doing well in competitions and I started accepting their friends into the training group. I ended up forming a good group of hurdlers who are with me today. They rescued me as an athletics coach,” he noted.

The Early Competitive Years: State and National Levels

Pietra’s formal competitive profile began to take shape in earnest in the 2021-2022 period, as she moved through the school games and regional youth competition circuits. Her rapid progression reflected both the coaching quality she was receiving and the raw athletic ability she had inherited. She emerged as one of the Distrito Federal’s most prominent youth athletes in the hurdles and began representing the region at the national level.

At the 2022 South American U20 Championships, her older brother Luca — himself an accomplished hurdler — competed as a member of Brazil’s national team, placing the family on the continental stage and inspiring Pietra to set her own sights higher. By her final year in the Sub-18 age category, she was widely regarded as the best young female hurdler in Brazil.

The Breakout Year: 2023

The 2023 season was the year Pietra Campbell Simões became a name that the Brazilian athletics community could not ignore. It unfolded in rapid succession across three major competitions, each one larger than the last, culminating in a moment of genuine national history.

In March 2023, competing at the Campeonato Brasileiro Escolar de Atletismo (Brazilian School Athletics Championship) in Brasília — which also served as the selection event for the World School Athletics Championship — she won the 100-meter hurdles final for the Distrito Federal. The Colégio Católica Brasília celebrated the achievement prominently, with Hebert describing the emotion of watching his daughter win yet another national championship. At that point, her next goal was the Gymnasiade — the World School Athletics Championship — to be held in Turkey in June 2023.

However, the Gymnasiade was relocated to Rio de Janeiro and held there in late August 2023, and Pietra arrived in excellent form. She won the 100-meter hurdles gold medal with a time of 13.64 seconds — a personal record at that point and a result that confirmed her place among the best young hurdlers on the school athletics circuit internationally. Her father and coach described the tension and relief of watching the race: “I was very tense before the race, because it was tense, disputed. She’s returning to rhythm because I gave her a break in training, with a new cycle.”

One week later, the calendar brought something even more significant: the Jogos da Juventude 2023 (Youth Games) in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo. The national youth games are Brazil’s premier multi-sport event for young athletes, and in the 100-meter hurdles final, Pietra faced her most formidable rival of the season — Amanda Miranda da Silva from Paraná, who had been running brilliantly all year. What followed was one of those rare races that rewrites the history books.

Amanda Miranda ran 13.54 seconds — a remarkable time that by itself would have demolished the existing Brazilian Sub-18 record of 13.56, held by Micaela Rosa de Melo since 2017. But Pietra ran 13.42 seconds. Both marks broke the record. Pietra won the gold. And with that single race, a 17-year-old from Brasília became the fastest Sub-18 female hurdler in Brazilian history. Her 13.42 was also the seventh-best Sub-18 mark in the world for the 2023 season.

“Finally I managed to reach this main goal of mine and my coach… Who is my father (laughs). I’m very fulfilled to see the result of the daily effort here on the track, leaving my legacy in the category,” she said, with the self-awareness of someone who had been building toward this moment for years.

The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB), which covered the race in depth, ran a feature that captured not just the result but the extraordinary backstory — the mother who trained pregnant, the father-coach who juggled post-doctoral research with trackside duties, the brother who had competed at the same international level, the family whose DNA was, as the headline said, genuinely “barreirista” — made for hurdles.

Club and National Affiliation: Praia Clube

Throughout her development, Pietra has competed under the banner of Praia Clube (formally listed as Praia Clube-CEMIG-Exército-Futel, reflecting the club’s multiple sponsors), a major Brazilian athletics program based in Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, that has produced numerous elite athletes. The club affiliation placed her within one of Brazil’s strongest competitive programs and provided access to institutional support that complemented her father’s coaching. The combination of family coaching and club infrastructure has been a consistent feature of her competitive environment.

2024: Sub-20 National Champion and South American Gold

Having aged out of the Sub-18 category after her record-breaking 2023 season, Pietra moved into Sub-20 competition in 2024. The step up in age group brought stiffened competition, but she adapted quickly and maintained her position at the front of the Brazilian hurdles landscape.

At the Campeonato Brasileiro Interclubes Sub-20 in June 2024, held at the Universidade Federal Fluminense track in Niterói, she won the 100-meter hurdles title with 14.02 seconds into headwind conditions of -1.4 m/s — conditions that suppressed marks across the competition. The win also qualified her for the South American Sub-20 Championships to be held in Lima, Peru, in July 2024. Notably, the Brazilian athletics federation noted that she had already run under the World Athletics U20 qualifying standard (13.61) on six separate occasions by that point, demonstrating the consistency of her form. Her best mark at that point was 13.61, set in April 2024. “I’m in my best shape, but with headwind the goal was to run for the gold, secure the spot for the South American and help my team with points,” she said.

At the South American Sub-20 Championships in Lima in July 2024 — the same city that would host the competition again in 2025 — she represented Brazil in the 100-meter hurdles. It was a significant international step in her Sub-20 career, competing on a continental stage against the best young hurdlers from across South America.

2025: Collegiate Debut and Continental Gold

The 2025 academic year brought two parallel tracks to Pietra’s life: the beginning of her collegiate athletics career at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, and the final chapter of her Sub-20 international career with Brazil’s national team.

At UNM, she enrolled as a freshman hurdler under the Lobos’ track and field program, listing her hometown as Brasília and her previous school as Colégio Católica Brasília. The University of New Mexico, which competes in the Mountain West Conference, sits at an elevation of 5,312 feet — a challenging adjustment for athletes from sea-level environments, though the altitude can eventually provide physiological benefits. Her collegiate career began in January 2025.

Indoors, she competed in the 60-meter hurdles and the 60- and 200-meter flat sprints. Her indoor best in the 60 hurdles reached 8.46 seconds — set in the preliminary round of the 2025 Mountain West Indoor Track and Field Championships in late February — with a 8.62 in the final placing her fifth in prelims and seventh in finals at the conference championships. She also ran 8.02 seconds in the 60-meter flat at the Don Kirby Elite Invitational and New Mexico’s MLK Jr. Invitational.

Outdoors, she opened the 100-meter hurdles season gradually, working through performances at the Sun City Classic (14.38 seconds), the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate (14.60), and the Beach Invite (14.34, though the mark was negated by excessive wind). Her best wind-legal collegiate outdoor mark came on May 3, 2025, at the Desert Heat Classic: 13.93 seconds with a +2.4 m/s wind — a time that, while aided by favorable conditions, reflected genuine improvement and placed her 10th on the Mountain West Conference outdoor 100-meter hurdles list for the season. She placed 8th at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships in her main event, also contributing to the 4×100 relay team.

That autumn, she returned to Brazil for what proved to be a triumphant conclusion to her Sub-20 international career. At the South American Sub-20 Championships in Lima, Peru, in November 2025, competing for the final time in the under-20 age category, Pietra Campbell Simões won the gold medal in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.56 seconds. “I’m very happy to finish my under-20 category this way. I always aimed for the title and it’s my first one, every year something happened… and in my final year to close with gold, I’m very happy. It was a race in which I still see points to improve, which is good, but it was close and I prioritized the medal. Thank you for everyone’s support,” she said after crossing the line. Brazil went on to win the overall team title at those championships, with Pietra’s gold a meaningful contribution to a historically dominant Brazilian performance.

Academic Life: Studying Nutrition

Beyond her athletic identity, Pietra Campbell Simões is actively pursuing higher education. She is majoring in Nutrition at the University of New Mexico, a field of study that directly complements her athletic background and reflects the emphasis on science and rigorous preparation that has always defined her family’s approach to sport. The choice of nutrition as a major is not incidental for an athlete whose father has a post-doctorate in exercise physiology and whose parents have always emphasized the importance of sleep, nutrition, and detailed preparation in training.

Before departing for the United States, she was completing the third year of secondary school at the Colégio Católica Brasília, managing morning academic hours alongside afternoon training sessions — the kind of discipline that would serve her well in balancing the demands of NCAA Division I athletics and university coursework at UNM.

On the Track: The Athlete Behind the Times

What makes Pietra Campbell Simões compelling as an athlete, beyond the results, is the combination of technical preparation and competitive maturity that her background has instilled. The 100-meter hurdles is one of the most technical events in athletics — ten barriers in a flat sprint, with exact stride patterns and perfect mechanical timing over each obstacle. A single disruption to the rhythm between hurdles can cascade into significant time losses. The event rewards not just speed but the kind of precision that comes from years of technically correct repetition.

Her father’s academic expertise in exercise physiology means that her training has been informed by evidence-based methods from the beginning. Her family environment means she was studying technique and racing strategy from the time she was old enough to watch her parents compete. By the time she broke the national record at 17, she had been absorbing hurdling knowledge — formally and informally — for most of her life.

She has also demonstrated the competitive temperament that distinguishes good athletes from great ones. In the races where her personal bests have come, she has consistently described a process of deliberate focus: “At each hurdle we ‘pushed each other’ to make a mark,” she said after one of her championship wins, describing the way head-to-head competition with a strong rival elevates both athletes. Her ability to peak in finals, to run her best under maximum pressure, is a skill that has appeared repeatedly in her career.

Social Media

Pietra Campbell Simões maintains an Instagram presence, which can be found under the handle associated with her name. No confirmed public sponsorship arrangements beyond her club affiliation with Praia Clube and her university’s standard athletic program partnerships have been documented.

Looking Ahead

With her Sub-20 chapter closed on the highest possible note — a South American gold medal — Pietra Campbell Simões enters her sophomore collegiate season at UNM in 2025-26 as an athlete with a strong foundation and clear upward trajectory. The transition to full senior competition, both in the NCAA and eventually at the senior international level representing Brazil, is the natural next challenge. Her personal best of 13.42 seconds from the Sub-18 level and her 13.56 from the South American Sub-20 Championships represent a performance range that, with continued development under collegiate coaching alongside her father’s ongoing influence, should push further into the 13-second range in coming years.

The Brazil women’s 100-meter hurdles landscape is competitive, and the path to the senior national team is not a simple one. But Pietra has navigated every step of her competitive development with unusual poise, graduating from national record holder to continental champion in the space of two years. She is a daughter of the track in the most literal sense, and the track has given back accordingly.

Career Highlights at a Glance

• Full name: Pietra Campbell Simões
• Hometown: Brasília, Distrito Federal, Brazil
• Born: 2006 (age 17 at time of Sub-18 national record, September 2023)
• Nationality: Brazilian
• Primary event: 100 meters hurdles
• Secondary events: 60m hurdles (indoor), 200 meters
• High school: Colégio Católica Brasília
• University: University of New Mexico (Lobos), Albuquerque, NM — Class of 2028 (Freshman 2024-25)
• Major: Nutrition
• Club: Praia Clube-CEMIG-Exército-Futel (Brazil)
• Coach: Hebert Gustavo Simões (father)

Personal Bests

Selected Competitive Record