Copa Brasil AA — Brasília

At an altitude of one thousand meters on Brazil's central plateau, the expansive waters of Lake Paranoá create an inland arena for open water swimming in Brasília, the federal capital. The 7ª Copa Brasil AA — Brasília is an open water swimming race organized by the Confederação Brasileira de Desportos Aquáticos (CBDA) and staged directly from the grounds of the Iate Clube de Brasília. Taking place along the club's sheltered shoreline, the event draws swimmers into a lake basin that softens the dry climate of the surrounding high plateau. Swimmers can test themselves across three separate race distances designed for different training backgrounds, featuring courses of 300 meters, 1,000 meters, and 2,400 meters. The 300-meter course provides a fast sprint close to the shore, while the 1,000-meter and 2,400-meter races trace wider circuits across the open lake surface where competitors settle into their stroke count and navigate around the turn buoys.

The May 2026 meet on Lake Paranoá

The Copa Brasil meet on Lake Paranoá on 21 and 22 May 2026 brought together 95 athletes from 25 clubs, 43 of them from the Iate Clube de Brasília. The Iate Clube de Brasília won the club title with 1,327 points, finishing first in the men's standings and second in the women's. Maurício Carvalho won the Senior H category in a race whose start gathered athletes of all categories at the same time. The Iate coach Klayton Negrão said that his swimmers already know how the lake behaves, and know the whole structure, the buoys and the sailors. Lake Paranoá reaches a maximum depth of 38 metres and has artificial beaches such as Prainha and the Piscinão do Lago Norte. Canoeing, rowing, sailing, water skiing and even diving are practised on the lake, which has hosted the Regata JK since 1994, with more than two hundred boats.

Lake Paranoá: high altitude waters fed by Ribeirão do Torto

Lake Paranoá was formed by damming the Paranoá River during the founding and construction of Brasília. The artificial reservoir was planned from the outset to secure water availability and to regulate local atmospheric humidity across the dry central plateau. The water level sits at an altitude of one thousand meters above sea level, held within a tightly regulated operational window between a minimum of 999.80 meters and a maximum of 1000.80 meters. Enclosing a perimeter of eighty kilometers, the lake covers an overall surface area of thirty-eight square kilometers. About twelve kilometers from the club, the Usina Hidrelétrica do Paranoá harnesses the stored waters. An adduction structure measuring roughly two kilometers in length links the main body of the lake to the power plant installations.

The facility operates using an available water drop of 105 meters. The northern arm of Lake Paranoá receives a steady inflow from the Ribeirão do Torto, one of the primary tributaries feeding the basin. Originating within the protected boundaries of Brasília National Park, the stream flows along a main course of approximately twenty kilometers. It drains a watershed spanning 249.76 square kilometers and maintains an average discharge of 2.89 cubic meters per second. A dedicated dam along the Ribeirão do Torto captures water for the public distribution system, delivering thirty percent of the drinking water consumed across Brasília.

Vila Amaury beneath the lake: the submerged pioneer camp

Beneath the surface of Lake Paranoá lies a hidden layer of early urban history that predates the modern capital. Before the valley was flooded, migrant construction workers who arrived to build Brasília established a temporary settlement known as Vila Amaury. The makeshift village housed the initial waves of laborers of the future capital. When the Paranoá River was dammed to establish the reservoir, the rising water submerged Vila Amaury entirely, entombing the former streets and foundations beneath the lakebed. As the lake filled in 1959, the surrounding topography was transformed, drowning the valleys while the highest elevations emerged from the flood as isolated summits above the newly created water surface.

The ecological reserves of Ilha do Paranoá and Ilha do Retiro

Those surviving ridges became three distinct islands within Lake Paranoá, all of which are formally designated as protected ecological reserves. Ilha do Paranoá covers an area of 1.54 hectares, extending 140 meters in length and reaching a maximum width of 110 meters. The island's shoreline is distinguished by large rocks clustered along its northeastern flank, giving way to steep embankments along the rest of its edge. For decades after the lake was created, Ilha do Paranoá remained easily accessible from the shore because the channel separating it was only forty centimeters deep, allowing people to cross on foot or by car. To halt human disturbance and shield the habitat, local authorities deepened the intervening channel in 1994, cutting off direct vehicular and walking access.

In 1997, the island was formally established as an Ecological Reserve under district law number 1612. The second largest island in the lake is Ilha do Retiro. Covering approximately 1.0 hectare, the island is also preserved as a strict ecological reserve. About eight kilometers away from the race area, the Jardim Zoológico de Brasília incorporates artificial lakes into its visitor complex.

Modernist shores of Lake Paranoá: Alvorada and Ponte JK

On the main lake, the open water supports a vibrant water sports scene, hosting regular wakeboarding and windsurfing sessions. About six kilometers away lies the Setor Palácio Presidencial. Here, Palácio da Alvorada stands on a prominent peninsula overlooking the lake. Nearby, the Bosque dos Leões lines the waterfront, planted with imperial palms alongside native vegetation typical of the Cerrado biome. The Jaburu Palace sits on the banks of the Jaburu Lagoon. The lagoon is a small natural body of water that nearly dried up completely in the late 1990s. Built in 1991 to enhance security and maintain local humidity levels during the dry months, a reflecting pool covering 1,635 square meters and measuring 110 centimeters deep holds a population of ornamental Japanese carp.

The weight of the Ponte JK is carried by four monumental pillars anchored into the bed of Lake Paranoá, while the road deck is suspended beneath three asymmetrical steel arches that rise 61 meters into the air. Against this landmark modernist backdrop, swimmers at the 7ª Copa Brasil AA find an expansive, high-altitude setting where sport meets the historic waters of the Brazilian capital.