Cyclist Telmo Pinao wins Portugal’s first Paralympic diploma

This Friday, cyclist Telmo Pinao won Portugal’s first diploma at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, finishing seventh in the 3000m C2 individual pursuit held at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome.

In a race in which the Paralympic record was broken twice and France’s Alexandre Leauté set a new world record (3.24.298 minutes), Telmo Pinao, who is missing part of his left leg, clocked 3.59.150 minutes to finish seventh.

Telmo Pinao was pleased with the result but admitted that “exaggeration at the beginning of the race” could have jeopardised his best result.

“The start was very good, I think I overdid it a bit on the third lap. When I say ‘overdid it a bit’ I mean I was a second faster, then I tried to relax a bit. In the middle of the race I felt like I was floating, but maybe I was a victim of overdid it at the beginning and in the last laps I didn’t feel so good,” he explained.

Telmo Pinao, who at 44 is making his third Paralympic appearance, admitted that “without this exaggeration” he might have “achieved the second goal after the diploma, which was to break a personal best” in the race, with the first two ads still fighting for gold and the next two fighting for bronze.

The Portuguese cyclist compared the race, held at the Velodrome where cyclists Yuri Leitão and Rui Oliveira won gold at the Olympic Games, to surfing: “We relax on the straights, pedal on the turns as if we were going to catch a wave, it’s like surfing.”

Telmo Pinao once again expressed regret that the race includes athletes with two legs and athletes with only one leg, considering that “it is unfair” and admitted that the current classification system, which is criticized, “benefits cyclists leaving the competition.”

The Coimbra-born cyclist will compete in three more races at the 2024 Paris Games: one on the track and two on the road.