Catia started judo in Brazil when she was 15 years old. After only 4 years of practice she won the selection tournament to represent Brazil in the South-America and Pan-America Junior championships where she won Silver and Bronze medals respectively. Catia kept training and chasing her dream to represent Brazil in a Senior division and that came 4 years later when she was brown belt and was awarded black belt to represent Brazil in the World Championship in France in 1997 with the official black belt being awarded in 1998. Catia is also, brown belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu(GFteam) and has a Bachelor degree in Sport Science, which during that time she represented the University in 2 University Olympic games (Japan 95, Spain 1999) and 2 University World Championships (Germany 1994/ 5th place, Spain 2000/ 9th place). She was a member of the Brazilian National team for 13 years, representing Brazil in many important international tournaments including the Fukuoka tournament in Japan (7th place), Germany open (5th place), Tunisia (Silver medal), 2x South America championships (Gold medal), South America Games (Gold medal), 2x Pan-America championship (Silver medal), part of the Brazilian team as the reserve for her division in the 2004 Athens Olympic Games with her last competition being the 2005 World Master Championship in Canada (Gold medal). She has always been passionate about judo and dedicated for more than 30 years. In Australia, she got invited to be one of the Cadet National coaches (2019-2021) and WA State Coaches intermittently since 2012. Catia opened the Australian Institute of Judo (AIJ) in 2015 and has her own Dojo in Welshpool.