Alessandra Vieira

Alessandra "Leka" Vieira is a Brazilian submission grappler, coach and sixth degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, born in 1976 in Minas Gerais. She began training at sixteen after a knee injury ended her handball career, and in 1999 she became the first woman to win a black belt world title at the World Jiu-Jitsu Championship. She went on to take further world titles in 2002 and 2005, four Pan American titles, and a silver medal in the 2005 ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship final against Kyra Gracie. After moving to California she opened her own school and became the first woman to promote another woman to black belt. She was inducted into the Black Belt Magazine hall of fame in 2014 and the United States Martial Art Hall of Fame in 2022, and she runs the Wonder Woman BJJ Project to widen women's participation in the art.