Brazilian volleyball player Tiffany Abreu is tearing up the women's volleyball circuit in her home country, and she has her eyes on the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

That's noteworthy because she's also the first transgender athlete to compete in the country's top volleyball league for women.

Abreu, 33, made her debut in the top-flight Superliga this week, playing well and earning most valuable player honors for a match. It's not the first time Abreu has received accolades for elite ability in the sport, but it's her first time doing so as a transgender woman.

She previously competed as a man (under the name Rodrigo), playing in professional men's leagues in several countries, including Brazil, Portugal, France, Indonesia, Spain, France, Holland and Belgium. But in 2012, Abreu decided to put volleyball on hold and transition to becoming a woman. According to the AP:

In Italy, She went through hormonal treatment to control the levels of testosterone in her blood stream, had sex reassignment surgery and changed all her previous identification to her new name. Soon after, she was informed she could play again. "I took every needed step after my agent said I could play women's volleyball. He knows the rules and said other transsexual athletes play in smaller leagues. So I decided to come back," she said. "I am obeying the rules, it is not as if I could just say I am a transsexual athlete and want to play." After her transition process was finished, Abreu got authorization from the International Volleyball Federation in 2017 to play in women's teams.

Thanks to a 2016 ruling from the International Olympic Committee that stated "transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery," Abreu is now focused on representing her country in 2020.

Brazilian Olympic coach Jose Roberto Guimaraes is open to the possibility of carrying Abreu on his team in Tokyo.

"Tiffany is legally apt to play in the Superliga, I don't see any problem in calling her (to play for Brazil)," Guimaraes said.

Brazil has one of the most successful and high-profile Olympic indoor volleyball programs in the world. Their five gold medals in the event is second-most among all countries, trailing only the Soviet Union's seven. Brazil won back-to-back gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Games before failing to medal at the 2016 Games in Rio.

If Abreu ends up making the Olympic squad in 2020, she will likely do so while facing criticism and scrutiny from fans, competitors, and possibly even teammates. Brazil's own Ana Paula Henkel (formerly Ana Paula Connelly), who was a four-time Olympian in volleyball, believes that Abreu should not be able to compete on the women's team.

"It is not a matter of prejudice, it is physiology," she wrote in a tweet this week. "Most players don't think it is fair for transsexuals to play against women. And it is not. (Abreu's) body was built with testosterone all life long."