A retired military police officer, Marivaldo Silva Pinto is 53 years old and has worked at Fluxo for nine as a security guard in the Salvador office. When he was 21 years old, he was amazed to see his master fighting and decided to join martial arts. It started with Karate, Kung Fu, then Hapkido and Taekwondo. Today he is in the category Black Belt 2nd DAN Hapkido and Black Belt 1st DAN Taekwondo.
30 years ago Silva Pinto began to participate in championships and tournaments. He has already accumulated more than 15 awards, including medals and trophies. The first medal was silver, won in 1981 at the 1st Martial Arts Festival in Cana Brava, on the outskirts of Salvador. From then until today, he has not stopped winning: he has won several medals in South American and world championships. This year alone he won champion and honor medals at the VIII World Championship Hapkido 2011. Next November he will participate in the I Panamerican Open Hapkido Championship in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, where he will compete with athletes from countries such as Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, USA and Canada.
Alongside his service at Fluxo as a security guard, Silva Pinto is also a teacher of martial arts, self-defense and physical education in several schools, social projects and neighborhood associations. He has already taught military personnel at the time he served in the Military Police, in gyms and surveillance companies. Today he teaches physical education at the Colégio da Polícia Militar da Bahia, in Lobato; at Colégio Wilson Garcês, in Pau da Lima; teaches martial arts in neighborhood associations and social projects such as Projeto Escola Aberta, in Cana Brava, and physical education classes at Projeto 3ª Idade e Saúde Coletiva at the Associação de Moradores do Colina Azul, in Pau da Lima, as a volunteer . He still teaches self-defense classes for the Municipal Guard of Salvador City Hall.