Portugal is standing on the edge of the podium in the triathlon in Paris

It wasn’t the details that made the difference between what happened (diploma) and what could have happened (medal). At one point, the four Portuguese who took part in the mixed relay race of the Olympic triathlon in Paris were thinking about the podium, but the difference for the winner, one of them, Vasco Vilaça, said that it was not just the details that it was “There were no details that we left out of the medals”, explained the triathlete from Portugal. “He will not go through details, he will go through work that will take four years. Detail is a matter of 0.01s and the time difference we had is the working time for everything. “

After good results in the individual events, Portugal picked up the medals again in the Olympic triathlon, finishing fifth, 1m27s behind the winner, Germany – USA and Great Britain considered the other medals in a “picture-end” finish that provided. silver for the Americans and bronze for the British. Between the podium and the Portuguese team was France, who suffered a setback in the first round, but recovered to fourth place.

Fifth place in the relay was the third diploma in Paris for the Portuguese triathlon, after Vasco Vilaça’s 5th place and Ricardo Batista’s 6th place in the men’s individual event – and Maria Tomé also had a good 11th in the women’s event. For equality is action Vanessa Fernandes in Beijing 2008the second place that gave Portugal the only silver medal in the Olympic triathlon, one of the highlights of a career that inspired this new generation.

“She is our idol, without her we wouldn’t be here, this messenger wouldn’t exist. I saw that she herself had left words of gratitude, and that she even shouted, this moves us, we did not expect her to be moved”, said Vasco Vilaça at the end of the race.

“The Dream”

Despite many doubts about the water quality in the Seine, which caused last-minute injuries in some teams, the mixed relay went on at the scheduled time, 8am. Ricardo Batista was the first to dive for the 300 meter swim, but he had to take a penalty as soon as he left the water. He managed to make up for lost time with the best cycling section (8km) among those doing the first leg.

After the 2km race, Batista passed the “potato” to Melanie Santos, who kept Portugal in the top eight, before Vilaça entered the race. The triathlete scored several positions in the swim and spent the bike and run in the third group, gaining a slight advantage for Maria Tomé to enter the final course in a podium position, with a slight advantage over the USA.

But the young Portuguese athlete ended up giving in to her North American opponent and was overtaken by the Frenchman, finishing in fifth place. It wasn’t a medal, but it was a diploma for everyone, a more honorable position for the first time in Portugal in this relay event. Everyone recognized how good their performance was, but admitted that they expected more. “We left very satisfied. We walked around the podium and halfway through I already believed in a medal”, admitted Ricardo Batista.

The plan was drawn up based on the performances of the four Portuguese in the respective events. “After my race and Ricardo’s were so close to each other, it didn’t make any difference to change our position. In the girls, Melanie has a very strong swim and is able to stay in contact, Maria has a very strong run, so that in the end, if we were fighting for the diploma or the medal, able to give everything in the last 100 meters”, revealed Vilaça.

Now, the plan is to continue to Los Angeles, with these, or others. But this team that was in Paris has a future. Batista and Tomé are 23 years old, Vilaça is 24 and Santos is 29. They all have at least one more Olympic ring under their belts and the four years of work starts now to continue the dream, as Vasco Vilaça said: “They are all dreams, and the dreams will continue. I am sure that triathlon will continue to dream in Los Angeles. “