Carina Santi

Carina Santi was born on December 1, 1989, in Osasco, São Paulo, Brazil, and built her athletic foundation well before stepping onto the jiu-jitsu mats. As a youth, she competed in handball with the Osasco team, rising to the position of goalkeeper for Brazilian national youth teams — a role that demanded sharp reflexes, elite physical conditioning, and mental resilience. Her ambition at the time was to forge a professional career in the sport, and she pursued a degree in physical education with the explicit goal of coaching handball at a high level.

That trajectory shifted when, at the age of 19, Santi lost her father. Grief led to significant weight gain — approximately 45 lbs (20 kg) within a few months — and depression. Searching for a way forward, she joined Júlio Pinheiro's jiu-jitsu academy, initially as a means of addressing both her physical and emotional state. The decision proved transformative. Her grandfather, a former judoka, recognized the value in what she was pursuing and became a vital source of encouragement throughout her colored belt progression — a journey she navigated through consistent competition and the steady development of the competitive instincts that would come to define her career.

Building a Championship Foundation

Santi trained and competed throughout her career under Júlio Pinheiro and G13, a loyalty that held firm even as her personal life drew her into proximity with another major affiliation in the sport. In 2014, Júlio Pinheiro awarded her the black belt — a milestone that recognized not only her technical development but the resilience she demonstrated across years of dedicated training and high-level competition.

Her colored belt record signaled early that she would be a serious force at the elite level. At brown belt in 2013, she captured the UAEJJF Abu Dhabi Pro title and the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals No-Gi Championship. She then added a runner-up finish at the IBJJF World Championship in 2014 before receiving her black belt — results that established a competitive foundation she would build upon decisively.

Black Belt Dominance

As a black belt, Santi assembled one of the more consistent records in her weight class during the late 2010s. She claimed gold at the IBJJF European Open in both 2018 and 2019, won the IBJJF South American Championship in 2017, and took first place at the CBJJ Brazilian Nationals in both 2017 and 2019, also winning the no-gi nationals in 2017. Competing in the Peso Pesado division (79.30 kg / 175.0 lbs), she demonstrated sustained championship-level performance that placed her among the defining female competitors of her generation.

Cross-Training and Loyalty

Santi broadened her grappling base by incorporating freestyle wrestling into her training. That investment paid off at the 2018 São Paulo regionals, where she earned a silver medal in the under-76-kilogram category — a result that reflected both her athleticism and her commitment to developing a well-rounded competitive game. Her marriage to Diogo Almeida, a prominent BJJ coach affiliated with Almeida JJ, placed her within a different competitive ecosystem, yet she maintained her affiliation with G13 throughout — a choice that reflected deep loyalty to the coach and team that had shaped her.

A Broad Pedagogical Foundation

Santi's physical education degree opened doors well beyond competition. After completing her studies, she worked as a teacher across multiple levels — from kindergarten through high school — and expanded her instruction to include swimming and group fitness disciplines such as gymnastics, step, and spinning. These experiences gave her a broad pedagogical base and early exposure to coaching diverse populations with varying athletic backgrounds and needs.

Personal Training and a Holistic Approach

In parallel, she built a personal training business focused on body transformation, operating for a period under the brand Pana Bianco. As of October 2025, approximately 80% of her personal training clients are women — a demographic alignment that reflects both her intentional outreach and her earned reputation within that community. Santi's coaching approach is notably holistic: she pairs physical training with emotional and psychological support, integrating perspectives drawn from her doula training into how she works with clients navigating personal and physical transformation.

Bodybuilding has also become a meaningful pillar of her athletic identity. Santi competed in the sport and draws directly on its strength and conditioning principles in her jiu-jitsu preparation — a cross-disciplinary approach that informs both her physical durability on the mats and the programming she designs for clients.

A Structural Solution to a Systemic Problem

In 2025, Santi founded Almeida Woman and Kids, a women-focused training facility in Brazil that stands as the most concrete expression of her mission to reshape how women experience combat sports environments. The facility features synchronized class schedules that allow mothers to train while their children participate in age-appropriate programs — a deliberate structural choice that addresses one of the most common barriers preventing women from sustaining consistent training.

Advocacy Rooted in Personal Experience

The motivation behind the project runs deeper than business. In a podcast discussed in articles published on October 21, 2025 (YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5jRnfW7mts), Santi described the harassment and hostile training environments she encountered earlier in her career — including unwanted physical contact and being deliberately choked unconscious by training partners. These accounts frame her gym-building work not as a commercial venture alone, but as an act of advocacy: a determination to ensure that women entering the sport do not face the same obstacles she did.

From Individual Training to Community Infrastructure

Almeida Woman and Kids marks an evolution from her earlier work under Pana Bianco, scaling from individual client relationships into a larger, community-centered model. Where her personal training business served individuals, this facility is designed to build a network — a space where women can train, develop, and support one another within a structure built specifically for their needs. Santi's stated mission, as articulated in that October 2025 podcast, is to create supportive spaces and networks for women across both BJJ and fitness, addressing not only physical training but the gender-based barriers and psychological dimensions that shape how women participate in combat sports.