João Sousa Pinto, a Portuguese athlete, was featured in a TSF report after participating in the Pyongyang International Marathon in North Korea, where he won the 10 km race. It was the first Portuguese to enter the country since 2019 and described the whole experience as “great”, in statements to TSF.
According to he said, João has always been curious to visit North Korea. When vacancies appeared for the event, he was the first to register and was eventually one of the selected to participate. During his stay, he did not have internet access, but revealed that the initial fears quickly disappeared.
In an interview with TSF, he reported that, contrary to popular belief, he managed to walk the street alone, visit stores and even supermarkets. “I haven’t seen anything they say,” he said, although he has pointed out that he was only in Pyongyang and that in other cities the reality may be different. He compared his experience with China, saying that everything seemed similar to him, from culture to the social environment.
João Sousa Pinto said he was surprised by the appreciation that athletics has in North Korea. Kim Il-Sung stadium was crowded with 60,000 people watching and applauding athletes. He also said that, unlike Portugal, where football dominates media attention, in that country one feels a genuine appreciation for various modalities. “It was an experience I never had in Portugal or elsewhere,” he said.
The medal delivery ceremony was made in the presence of Kim Jong-un and several ministers of the regime. John appeared on television and local newspapers, a recognition he said, never experienced in the national territory.
The athlete stated that many of the ideas he had about the country were not confirmed. Despite recognizing that what he saw is limited to the capital, he said that the most negative ideas heard in the West now seem to him “a bit exaggerated.” “That idea we have that people are not free to leave home, I think it’s an exaggeration,” he concluded.
João returned to Portugal with a gold medal and a different perspective on one of the most closed countries in the world.
