Ricardo David Montes

Ricardo David Montes de Oca Suárez (born 22 September 2006) is a Venezuelan pole vaulter. He was South American champion in 2025 and 2024 South American Indoor champion. He represented Venezuela at the 2025 World Athletics Championships. He also holds the Venezuelan national record.

Biography He is from Barquisimeto in the Venezuelan state of Lara. He became Venezuelan national champion in the pole vault in May 2023. In 2023, he won the pole vault at the 2023 South American U20 Athletics Championships in Bogotá, Colombia.

He won the bronze medal at the senior South American Championships in São Paulo, Brazil, in July 2023, clearing 5.40 metres. In November 2023, he finished tenth at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile with a jump of 5.10 m.

He won the 2024 South American Indoor Championships in Cochabamba, Bolivia, with a height of 5.20 m. He was a finalist at the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, but did not register a height. He won the gold medal at the 2024 South American U23 Championships in Bucaramanga, Colombia.

Having started studying in the United States and competing for High Point University, he set a South American U-20 indoor record with a jump of the 5.57 meters in Blacksburg, Virginia in January 2025, breaking the previous best mark held by Argentine Germán Chiaraviglio from 2006, and was also the Venezuelan national records in the junior, under-23, and senior categories. He won the gold medal at the 2025 South American Championships in Mar del Plata, Argentina, in April 2025, clearing 5.40 metres.

He won the 2025 Junior Pan American Games in Asunción, Paraguay in August 2025. He competed at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2025, without advancing to the final.