The Portuguese athlete thus closed more than two decades of competition at the highest level, two weeks after becoming national triple jump champion for the 13th time.
The Beijing 2008 Olympic triple jump champion, Nélson Évora, ended his career this Thursday, at 42 years old, at the University Stadium of Lisbon, in a symbolic moment.
With a “final jump” of 16.72 meters, the Portuguese athlete thus closed more than two decades of competition at the highest level, two weeks after becoming national triple jump champion for the 13th time. Évora reached 16.03 meters, the second-best national mark of the year, only behind Pedro Pichardo’s 17.71 meters.
“It was a project that wasn’t planned to be this way, it went very well. Honestly I expected to jump more, to the surprise of many people, but I had very few competitions to gain competitive rhythm. It was a very good challenge, it felt too short, but at my age this moment had to come,” he told reporters.
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The athlete recalled that the end was decided and that his return to competition wasn’t born from an ambition to become champion again, but to rediscover the joy of jumping, ending a three-year break.
“The nationals were an official event. This here was a symbolic ‘final jump’ event. People had the opportunity to see me jump again, (…) they announced my return and I was super happy. I didn’t expect people to be so happy about my return to top-level competition. It was a project. It wasn’t something planned to be this way — training to be national champion. I had the ambition to rediscover joy and jump,” he recalled.
The physical effort required at 42 years old weighed on the decision.
“It’s hard to work the body to respond in the best way and do a good triple jump. But I’m happy and I feel complete,” he emphasized. Without hesitation, Nélson Évora highlighted the gold medal won at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games as the highest point of his career.
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“Without a doubt, the highest moment of my career is the Olympic title. It’s the maximum an athlete can achieve. I dreamed of that when I was younger, I never imagined entering the history of national sport,” he stressed, recalling the world and European titles and indoor track medals.
