Nelson Évora

It took journey through two other countries on a different continent before the young Nelson Évora arrived in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital that would become his home in his adult life. But it was well worth the trip.

Évora was born in the Ivory Coast to parents from Cape Verde, who eventually decided to move his family to Portugal. In Lisbon, Évora began competing in athletics at the age of seven, and even at that early age, Portugal’s future national record holder showed a propensity for jumping: at 11 years old, the 1.40m (4’7”) Évora had already cleared 1.64m (5’4.5”).

As promising as his early high jump success had been, a knee injury at age 15 curtailed his success in that discipline, leading him to focus on the long and triple jump. His success was soon realized as he placed sixth in the triple jump at the 2002 IAAF World Junior Championships, and then won double gold in both the long and triple jump at the 2003 European Junior Championships.

While an injury limited his participation at the Athens Olympics in 2004 (he failed to qualify for the final), 2005 saw Évora win the bronze medal in the triple jump at the European Under-23 Championships. He also qualified for the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki that year but, again, failed to make the triple jump final. The following year, Évora began to make more of a name for himself on the senior circuit: first by breaking the Portuguese indoor triple jump record in February, and then placing sixth at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Moscow. That summer at the European Championships in Gothenburg, Évora broke the Portuguese record in the qualifying round of the triple jump, but just missed out on a medal by finishing fourth.

It was in 2007 that Évora’s steady build up from a successful junior to a medal contender would reach fruition. Though a minor injury derailed his attempts at the European Indoor Championships that winter, Évora arrived to the outdoor season as a man determined to capture the success that had eluded him. It proved to be his best season ever: he broke his own national triple jump record three times, the last of which also captured him the gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in Osaka, Évora’s first senior world title. His breakthrough year had also been a remarkably consistent one, as Évora broke the 17 metre barrier (55’9.25”) in eleven of his fourteen competitions. It’s a record of improvement and consistency that Évora hopes to continue as he makes his way to Beijing this summer.