Yuri Leitao’s brilliance eclipsed that of other medalists

Youri Leitan has risen to the status of a key figure in Portugal’s mission to Paris 2024, becoming the first Portuguese to win two medals at the same Olympic Games, including gold alongside Rui Oliveira in the Madison.

In two days, the 26-year-old Viennese has etched his name into Portuguese Olympic history forever: first he won silver in the omnium, a race in which he is the reigning world champion, then he and Oliveira became Olympic champions in Madison, while the two cyclists won Portugal’s first gold outside athletics.

The feat of both is even more remarkable because it was achieved during the debut of Portuguese men’s track cycling at the Olympic Games. Leitão thus broke into the gallery of the best Portuguese Olympians of all time, overtaking Rosa Mota, Fernanda Ribeiro or Fernando Pimento and equaling the “nest” of Carlos Lopes and Pedro Pichardo, who in Paris 2024 added a silver in the triple jump to the Olympic champions. gold in Tokyo2020.

To join Portugal’s list of most medal-winning Olympians, the jumper “flew” 17.84 meters, falling just two centimeters short of the gold won by Spain’s Jordan Dias.

In the mixed zone of the Stade de France after the triple jump final, Pichardot admitted that he wanted to withdraw immediately, also unhappy with the lack of support from the government, “which only looks at football.”

At least at these Games the country looked more at the conditions and met another promise that became certain, judoka Patricia Sampaio, who won bronze in the 78 kg weight class after a virtually flawless journey in which she defeated three opponents, including France’s Madeleine Malonga, then the Olympic runner-up in ippon, and lost only to Italy’s Alice Bellandi, who later won gold.

It was the first Portuguese medal in Paris 2024, won on August 1, but the fortunes of the Portuguese mission, which had been accumulating disappointments until then, began to change the day before in the individual triathlon competition: Vasco Vilasa and Ricardo Batista won backwards and “glued” the audience to the screen, winning two diplomas, taking fifth and sixth places respectively in the classification.

The two will also join Maria Tomé and Melanie Santos to present the new diploma to the national triathlon, finishing fifth in Portugal’s debut in the mixed relay, a surprise to the French capital, which applauded its successors.

In the mission to instill new values, gymnastics demonstrated renewed vitality: the experienced Filipa Martins became the first Portuguese woman to reach the final of the all-around artistic gymnastics at the Olympic Games, while the young Gabriel Albuquerque, the “youngest” delegation at the Olympic Games, at only 18 years old, became the best player in the history of trampoline, finishing fifth in the final.

On the path of the “diplomats”, a special place is occupied by sailors Carolina Joao and Diogo Costa, who in distant Marseille took fifth place in the 470 class, as well as cyclist Nelson Oliveira, seventh in the time trial, Maria Ines Barros, a pioneer in shooting with firearms for hunting and eighth in the Olympic pit, and Jessica Inchude, eighth in the shot put.

Honorable mentions also go to Salome Afonso, who smashed her pre-Games personal best by more than six seconds to become the second-best Portuguese woman of all time in the 1500m behind Carla Sacramento, and Fatoumata Diallo, who came close to her personal best in the 1500m and 400 hurdles.

While some of them surprised, others did not live up to expectations, such as canoeists Fernando Pimenta, who was looking for his third Olympic medal and was sixth in the K1 1000m, and the duo of João Ribeiro/Messias Baptista, world champions, who finished fifth in the K2 500m.

However, all three left the French capital with diplomas (and with great sadness), unlike what happened to the figure skater Gustavo Ribeiro, the first Portuguese hope to open a medal and only 17th in street racing, but above all to Diogo Ribeiro, who failed in the pool and even more so outside it.

The 100m butterfly world champion, the young 19-year-old swimmer only managed to qualify for the halfway point in the 50m freestyle, but fell prematurely in the 100m freestyle and his chosen event.

Worse than his performance in the pool, it was even outside it, with Ribeiro firing in several directions, in a speech in which, however, he admitted that he should have given more in the 100 butterfly qualification and that something had gone wrong in his preparation for Paris 2024.