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Bianca Andrade

From national bodyboarding champion to jiu-jitsu world titles, Bianca Andrade teaches in Alagoas and returned to win in the master divisions.

Biography

Bianca Andrade was a professional bodyboarder before she became a jiu-jitsu world champion. Also known as Bianca Andrade Barreto, the Gracie Barra black belt built a career that includes adult and master competition, teaching in Alagoas, and a place in the IBJJF Hall of Fame. Born in Alagoas in 1973, Andrade grew up with sport in the family. In a 2023 interview with Eufêmea, she recalled a mother and aunt who played volleyball and a father who coached soccer; education mattered alongside athletic achievement. As a teenager, she secured bodyboarding sponsorship. The Brazilian bodyboarding federation records her as the women's national champion in 1996. Her first jiu-jitsu teacher was Diojone Farias, with whom she would later run an academy. Her early world titles came in women's divisions that grouped several belt ranks together. At the 2001 IBJJF Worlds, she won adult featherweight representing Diojone J-J, with Leticia Ribeiro second, in a division open to purple, brown and black belts. In 2004, competing for Gracie Barra/Alagoas, she won the same combined-belt category, ahead of Kyra Gracie. Further featherweight victories followed in the combined brown-and-black-belt division in 2005, 2008, 2009 and 2010. She also won the brown-and-black featherweight category at the World No-Gi Championships in both 2007 and 2008, competing without the traditional jacket. Andrade's attacking style made an impression on Fabiana Borges, who later shared the 2010 Worlds podium with her: Andrade took first and Borges second. Recalling her influences in a 2026 BJJ Girls Mag interview, Borges singled out Andrade's guard work—attacking and controlling an opponent from underneath—and her submission attacks. She remembered an armbar against Poliana and said Andrade had inspired her decision to join Gracie Barra. An armbar, a joint lock that extends the elbow, is also the technique BJJ Heroes identifies as Andrade's favorite. That profile describes her 2009 Worlds final against Sayaka Shioda ending in a submission within seconds. After her 2010 world title, Andrade learned she was pregnant. She told Eufêmea that she stepped back from competition to raise her daughter, then resumed serious training seven years later with a return to competing in mind. Teaching remained another setting for her experience. In September 2018, she led a women-only seminar in Maceió attended by around 70 athletes from Gracie Barra, Kimura, Sandro Mello and Argus. The session covered self-defense and competition techniques, and Andrade talked about her own experiences in tournaments. Speaking to GloboEsporte, she described her pleasure at being someone younger women looked to as an example. One of her students went on to teach women herself. In a 2020 interview published by Gracie Barra Barro Duro, Isaura Miranda named Andrade and Farias as her teachers at Gracie Barra Alagoas. Miranda had started helping with classes in 2017 before taking charge of a women's group at Barro Duro. By 2023, Andrade and her husband Farias were running Gracie Barra Alagoas in Maceió, with roughly 250 children and adults training there. Andrade has a psychology degree; she told Eufêmea that she used that education in teaching rather than clinical practice. She described making lessons from competition and everyday obstacles understandable to her students. Her preparation for the 2023 World Master Championship in Las Vegas was deliberate. In an account published by 7Segundos, she said she committed to the tournament three months beforehand and worked with a nutritionist and a physiotherapist. She also prepared herself for the possibility of defeat. Family, friends and students supported her, and she recalled feeling composed when her first match began. Her stated approach was to compete carefully and win on points. The official results place her first in women's Master 4 black-belt featherweight, ahead of Vandircleya Coutinho Vaz Cohen. The following year she won featherweight again, this time in the Master 5 black-belt division, with Sandra Inacio de Melo second. An October 2025 report identified Andrade as a teacher and co-owner of Gracie Barra Alagoas. That month, the academy announced a women-only session bringing together group exercises, self-defense, competition fundamentals and basic techniques. Participants were asked to contribute a pack of sanitary pads for charitable distribution. Andrade described the purpose as introducing more women to jiu-jitsu.

Sources for this profile

Competition results

Recorded tournament results, newest first
YearEventResultDivision
2010IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-53 kgGiVerified1st place-53 kgGiVerified
2009IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-53 kgGiVerified1st place-53 kgGiVerified
2008IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-53 kgGiVerified1st place-53 kgGiVerified
2005IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-53 kgGiVerified1st place-53 kgGiVerified
2004IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-53 kgGiVerified1st place-53 kgGiVerified
2001IBJJF World ChampionshipSource: en.wikipedia.org-53 kgGiVerified1st place-53 kgGiVerified

Lineage

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