Jose Manuel Constantino, President of the Portuguese Olympic Committee, has died.

The President of the Portuguese Olympic Committee (COP), José Manuel Constantino, died this Sunday at the age of 74 in Lisbon, the Olympic body announced during the closing ceremony of the 2024 Games in Paris.

“The President of the CS, José Manuel Constantino, passed away this Sunday. It is with great sadness that the CS shares this news on a day of great sadness for his family and friends, as well as for Portuguese sport. Our president fought for a long time against the disease and gave us year after year, day after day, examples of the great tenacity of the leadership of the organization. We express our sincere condolences to all his family and friends,” the official website of the CS says.

José Manuel Constantino has led the COP since 26 March 2013, when he succeeded Vicente Moura, who was at the height of his experience in sports governance after heading the Instituto de Desporto de Portugal, the predecessor of the Instituto Português do Desporto e Juventude (IPDJ) and the Portuguese Sports Confederation.

Constantino was born in Santarém on May 21, 1950. He was the first graduate of the Faculty of Physical Education (1975) to head the COP, after extensive teaching experience, both in university education (1994-2002) and in basic education, at the beginning of his career (1973-1986).

Having published several books and numerous articles on sports, he was one of the greatest thinkers on the phenomenon in Portugal, something that was recognized by the University of Porto in 2016 and by the University of Lisbon, receiving an honorary doctorate in 2023.

In this last recognition, on November 22, 2023, at the Faculty of Human Motility (FMH), the President of the Republic addressed Constantino directly, praising him: “Portuguese sport has learned from you.”

“You cannot rest, you have never rested in your life. Your life has been a tiresome service to Portugal. And so I am here to thank you on behalf of Portugal for this tiresome past, but bet on the tiresome future that awaits you,” Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa admitted at the time.

A sportsman of the Leões de Santarém Football Federation (1962–1967), he became a leader only in 1985 as technical secretary of the Sport Algés e Dafundo board, and then became an adviser to the Portuguese Weightlifting Federation board (1986–1990).

In 2000, his first national project was to take over as President of the Portuguese Sports Confederation, and in 2002 he left this position to become the head of the Portuguese Sports Institute (IDP).

In 2001, he was a member of the Board of Founders of the Sports Foundation, and from 2001 to 2005 he was a member of the Supreme Sports Council.

José Manuel Constantino was also President of the National Coordinating Committee of the European Year of Education through Sport (2003–2004).

From 1996 to 2002 he was the head of the Social and Cultural Affairs Department of the Oeiras City Council, and from 2006 to 2013 he chaired the board of directors of Oeiras Viva, EEM.

He died today, after three days of hospitalization, in a Lisbon hospital, after accompanying Portugal’s top representative team to the Paris Olympic Games.

As in Tokyo 2020, Portugal won four medals, but more valuable ones: gold in the Madison from Rui Oliveira and Yuri Leitan, silver also in the omnium, as in track cycling, silver from Pichardot in the triple jump and bronze from Sampaio Patricia in judo.