Nelson Évora facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
GCIH
Nelson Évora

Nélson Évora in 2015
Personal information
Nationality	Portuguese
Born	(1984-04-20) 20 April 1984 (age 40) Ouragahio, Ivory Coast
Height	1.83 m
Weight	76 kg
Sport
Country	Portugal
Sport	Track and field
Event(s)	Triple jump
Club	FC Barcelona
Coached by	Iván Pedroso
Medal record Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing Triple jump World Championships Gold 2007 Osaka Triple jump Silver 2009 Berlin Triple jump Bronze 2015 Beijing Triple jump Bronze 2017 London Triple jump World Indoor Championships Bronze 2008 Valencia Triple jump Bronze 2018 Birmingham Triple jump World Indoor Tour Winner 2018 Triple jump European Championships Gold 2018 Berlin Triple jump European Indoor Championships Gold 2015 Prague Triple jump Gold 2017 Belgrade Triple jump Silver 2019 Glasgow Triple jump Universiade Gold 2009 Belgrade Triple jump Gold 2011 Shenzhen Triple jump Lusophony Games Gold 2006 Lusophony Games 16.30 m Gold 2009 Lusophony Games 17.15 m

Nelson Évora GCIH (born 20 April 1984) is an Ivory Coast-born Portuguese track and field athlete of Cape Verdean descent who specializes in the triple jump.

Évora is a former outdoor Olympic, World, and European triple jump champion. He has also won a European indoor title and the World indoor tour in triple jump. Évora competes at national level for Portugal and at club level for FC Barcelona. He represented Cape Verde until 2002, when he got Portuguese citizenship in June of that year.

Biography

Born in Ouragahio, Ivory Coast, where his parents had come to live from Cape Verde, Évora and his family moved to Portugal when he was five years old. He still holds the Cape Verdean records in both the long jump (7.57 m) and the triple jump (16.15 m).

Évora's family settled in Odivelas, on the floor above João Ganço's—a former Portugal record-holder and the first Portuguese to pass over 2 meters in the high jump. Davide Ganço, one of João Ganço's three sons and one year older than Évora, became his best friend. One day, João Ganço, seeing them playing in the street, suggested that Évora started practising athletics, following Davide's example, and, just like that, Évora's athletic career started. João then became his coach.

Évora is a member of the Baháʼí Faith.

Sports career

He competed in the triple jump in the 2004 Olympics, without progressing from his pool, and finished sixth at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships. He finished fourth in the triple jump final and sixth in the long jump final at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg, having set a Portuguese triple jump record of 17.23 metres during the qualification. At the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships he came in fifth place.

On 27 August 2007, Évora became the triple jump world champion at the 2007 World Championships, in Osaka, Japan, establishing his personal best (Portuguese national record until May 2018) and second best world mark of the year at 17.74 metres.

On 9 March 2008, Évora placed third in the triple jump competition at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor Championships, in Valencia, by jumping 17.27 metres.

On 21 August 2008, he edged out Phillips Idowu of Great Britain and Leevan Sands of the Bahamas to take an Olympic gold medal with a 17.67 metres jump.

Évora set the world leading mark at the Grande Prêmio Brasil Caixa in May 2009, winning with 17.66 m. He was pleased with the jump (his third best performance ever) and stated his intention to surpass the 18 metre mark at the forthcoming 2009 World Championships. In mid-2009, he won the triple jump gold at the Universiade and another at the 2009 Lusophony Games.

However he was unable to replicate his winning form at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, being relegated to second place. After leading with a first round jump of 17.55 m, the man he beat in the Olympics, Phillips Idowu, was able to take the gold with a third round jump of 17.73 m, the longest in the world for that year.

Évora represented F. C. Porto from 2002 to 2004, S.L. Benfica from 2004 to 2016 and Sporting Clube de Portugal from 2016 to 2020. Since 2020 he is an athlete of FC Barcelona.

Personal bests

Évora en route to his 2009 World Championships silver medal

• High jump – 2.07 m (2005)
• Long jump – 8.10 m (2007)
• Triple jump – 17.74 m (2007)

International competitions

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Portugal
2001	European Youth Olympic Festival	Murcia, Spain	1st	Long jump	7.49 m
2002	World Junior Championships	Kingston, Jamaica	18th (q)	Long jump	7.28 m (+0.7 m/s)
			6th	Triple jump	15.87 m (-0.2 m/s)
2003	European Junior Championships	Tampere, Finland	1st	Long jump	7.83 m
			6th	Triple jump	16.43 m
2004	World Indoor Championships	Budapest, Hungary	10th (q)	Triple jump	16.30 m
	Ibero-American Championships	Huelva, Spain	7th	Triple jump	15.56 m
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	23rd (q)	Triple jump	15.72 m
2005	European U23 Championships	Erfurt, Germany	3rd	Triple jump	16.89 m (+1.9 m/s)
	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	14th (q)	Triple jump	16.60 m
2006	World Indoor Championships	Moscow, Russia	6th	Triple jump	17.14 m
	European Cup First League	Thessaloniki, Greece	1st	Long jump	8.05 m (0.0 m/s)
			2nd	Triple jump	17.03 m w (+2.5 m/s)
	European Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	6th	Long jump	7.91 m
			4th	Triple jump	17.07 m
	Lusophony Games	Macau, China	1st	Triple jump	16.30 m
2007	European Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	5th	Triple jump	16.97 m
	European Cup First League	Milan, Italy	1st	Long jump	8.10 m (-0.9 m/s)
			1st	Triple jump	17.35 m w (+2.4 m/s)
	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	1st	Triple jump	17.74 m NR
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	3rd	Triple jump	17.30 m
2008	World Indoor Championships	Valencia, Spain	3rd	Triple jump	17.27 m
	European Cup First League	Leiria, Portugal	1st	Long jump	7.88 m (0.0 m/s)
			1st	Triple jump	16.91 m (+0.8 m/s)
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	1st	Triple jump	17.67 m
	World Athletics Final	Stuttgart, Germany	1st	Triple jump	17.24 m
2009	European Team Championships	Leiria, Portugal	2nd	Long jump	7.94 m
			1st	Triple jump	17.59 m
	Universiade	Belgrade, Serbia	1st	Triple jump	17.22 m
	Lusophony Games	Lisbon, Portugal	1st	Triple jump	17.15 m
	World Championships	Berlin, Germany	2nd	Triple jump	17.55 m
2011	European Team Championships	Stockholm, Sweden	6th	Triple jump	16.33 m
	Universiade	Shenzhen, China	1st	Triple jump	17.31 m
	World Championships	Daegu, Korea	5th	Triple jump	17.35 m
2014	European Championships	Zürich, Switzerland	6th	Triple jump	16.78 m
2015	European Indoor Championships	Prague, Czech Republic	1st	Triple jump	17.21 m
	World Championships	Beijing, China	3rd	Triple jump	17.52 m
2016	World Indoor Championships	Portland, United States	4th	Triple jump	16.89 m
	European Championships	Amsterdam, Netherlands	17th (q)	Triple jump	16.27 m
	Olympic Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	6th	Triple jump	17.03 m SB
2017	European Indoor Championships	Belgrade, Serbia	1st	Triple jump	17.20 m
	World Championships	London, United Kingdom	3rd	Triple jump	17.19 m
2018	World Indoor Championships	Birmingham, United Kingdom	3rd	Triple jump	17.40 m
	European Championships	Berlin, Germany	1st	Triple jump	17.10 m
2019	European Indoor Championships	Glasgow, United Kingdom	2nd	Triple jump	17.11 m
	World Championships	Doha, Qatar	15th (q)	Triple jump	16.80 m
2021	Olympic Games	Tokyo, Japan	27th (q)	Triple jump	15.39 m

Orders

• Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (Portugal, 27 May 2015)
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit (Portugal, 30 August 2018)

See also

In Spanish: Nelson Évora para niños