Texas
Glam influencer who drowned during Texas Ironman had battled flu but ignored pleas to ditch race
The glam influencer who drowned during a Texas Ironman swim had been battling the flu – but ignored pals who begged her to pull out of the brutal endurance race, according to one friend.
“She was ill before the trip, she wasn’t okay,” Luis Taveira said of close friend Mara Flávia, 38, who died during Saturday’s race in The Woodlands.
“My wife and I spoke with her to say she was too weak for this race, although a couple of days ago when we talked to her, she insisted she was okay,” Taveira said of the Brazil-born influencer, according to sports website the Spun.
“I still cannot believe what’s happened. She was ill because of the flu.”
Flávia continued “training hard” even while “weakened” by her illness, the friend said.
Just two days before the competition, Flávia shared a picture of herself in a pink swimming costume and cap sitting by the edge of a pool.
“Just another day at work,” she wrote in Portuguese.
Her Instagram account was peppered with snaps, showing her working out in a gym, by the pool, or running outdoors.
“Not every victory is photogenic, not every growth is pretty to watch. Sometimes evolving is being silent, stepping back, saying no, crying in the background, and coming back the next day more aware,” she said in one motivational post.
In others, she said that skill “only develops with hours and hours of work” and sport is “the best tool for transformation.”
The Ironman Texas competition features three legs — a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. The women’s event got underway just after 6:30 a.m. Saturday, with fire crews alerted around an hour later that there was a lost swimmer.
Flávia’s body was found around 9 a.m. in about 10 feet of water.
Officials have ruled her preliminary cause of death was drowning, and relatives have paid tribute.
Flávia’s sister, Melissa Araújo, said her sibling “lived life intensely” – and revealed a piece of her had vanished, People reported.
“You were always synonymous with determination, with courage — with a strength that seemed too vast to be contained within you,” she wrote on social media.
“You never did anything halfway; perhaps that is why you left such a profound mark on the lives of everyone who crossed your path.
“A piece of me is gone, and I will have to learn to live without it. And it hurts in a way I cannot even explain.
“It is a strange silence, a void I knew existed all along — as if the world itself had lost a little of its color.”
Flávia’s partner, Rodrigo Ferrari, described the swimmer as his “love” and said not waking up next to her was hard.
“Ursa, you were the best person I have ever met in my life,” he wrote in a note shared on social media.
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HOUSTON, Texas — Houston-area leaders on Saturday expressed frustration over what they described as a lack of cooperation from federal authorities following the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.
The shooting happened on Tuesday during an immigration operation. Federal officials said an ICE agent shot and killed the 52-year-old after he allegedly rammed a law enforcement vehicle and refused verbal commands during a traffic stop.
Three men detained during the operation have disputed the federal account of what happened.
RELATED | Illegal immigrant killed by ICE agent in Houston was not intended target, lawmaker says
Rep. Christian Menefee, D-Texas, criticized the federal government’s handling of the case, questioning its characterization of Salgado Araujo and the use of masked ICE agents and unmarked vehicles during enforcement operations.
RELATED | Family speaks out after fatal ICE shooting as Austin rally calls for transparency
SEIU Texas President Elsa Flores called for greater transparency and accountability, saying officials should ensure a similar incident does not happen again and that those responsible are held accountable.
Texas
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