João Carlos de Oliveira

João Carlos de Oliveira, also known as "João do Pulo" (May 28, 1954 – May 29, 1999) was a Brazilian athlete who competed in the triple jump and the long jump.

Born in Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo De Oliveira won two Olympic bronze medals. His personal best of 17.89 metres, set on October 15, 1975, in Pan American Games, stood as the world record until 1985. As of today, it is still in the top twenty of all-time best results in the event.

Only in 2000, twenty years after the Moscow Games, the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald, the largest in Australia, made a major report demonstrating that the Brazilian's canceled jumps were part of a Soviet operation to give Saneyev the fourth Olympic title. The plan didn't work out because of Uudmäe's best jump, but even so, the gold medal went to the USSR.

In contrast to the lack of luck in the Olympics, in the pre-World Championships in Athletics, João do Pulo was three-time world champion in the triple jump in 1977 (in Düsseldorf), 1979 (in Montreal) and 1981 (in Rome, with 17.37 m, beating Jaak Uudmäe, a year after the Olympics, and future world record holder Willie Banks of the United States). Flag bearer of Brazil in the opening parade in Montreal 1976 and in Moscow 1980, João was the main idol of the Brazilian sport between 1975 and 1981.

Death

In 1981, he was in a car accident near São Paulo in which he lost one leg. Afterward, he became a vocal advocate for the rights of the disabled. He died in 1999 from complications of alcoholism.

His world record was only broken almost ten years later, by the North American Willie Banks, with 17.90 m, in Indianapolis, on June 16, 1985. His Brazilian and South American record was only broken more than twenty-one years later, by Jadel Gregório, with 17.90 m, in Belém, on May 20, 2007 (who coincidentally was also an athlete of João do Pulo's former coach).

International competitions 1Representing the Americas

2Did not start in the final