Carlito (Dante) Rodrigues is a professional athlete and entrepreneur from Darwin. He is a proud Aboriginal Tiwi/Portuguese man who has used his influence from professional sports to promote mental health and suicide prevention.
Dante has started multiple programs internationally and locally to help misguided and underprivileged youth, most notably the One Percent Program. The initiative builds self-worth and brings young men together for fitness training and meaningful conversation.
A professional kickboxer, Dante represented Australia at the WAKO World Championships on two separate occasions in Italy in 2018 (winning a silver medal) and Portugal in 2023. He was the first Aboriginal and first Territorian kickboxer to represent Australia and the first to win a medal.
Dante, currently Australian light-middleweight champion and a five-time state Muay Thai champion, was recently chosen as the 2024 National NAIDOC Youth of the Year and a state NAIDOC Youth and Sports Person of the Year.