Cruz made her first ever Angolan team, as a 13-year-old teen, at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.[3] She failed to reach the top 16 final in the 100 m breaststroke, finishing in forty-second place at 1:24.46.[4]
Cruz also competed in the same stroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, this time she swam in a time of 1:21.50 and finished in forty-first place beating Elke Talma from the Seychelles and Nguyễn Thị Phương from Vietnam who was disqualified.[5]
Four years later at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, she competed in the 100 metres breaststroke which she swam in 1:16.62 and finished 43rd out of 46 swimmers,[6] she also swam in the 200 metres breaststroke and she finished 37th out of 40 starters.[7]
Twelve years after competing in her first Olympics, Cruz qualified for her fourth Angolan team in the women's 100 m breaststroke, as a 25-year-old, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Because of her remarkable record and legacy, she became the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony.[3] She also received a ticket from FINA, under an Olympic Solidarity and Universality program, in an entry time of 1:14.00.[8] She challenged seven other swimmers in heat two, including Bolivia's 26-year-old Katerine Moreno, who also competed with her in their Olympic debut back in 1988. Coming from last at the initial turn, she held off a sprint challenge from Papua New Guinea's Xenia Peni on the final stretch to pick up a seventh seed in a time of 1:19.57. Cruz failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-eighth overall in the prelims.[9][10]
