“Believe me, no other athlete will be able to jump like you anytime soon,” said Adhemar Ferreira da Silva, who welcomed João Carlos de Oliveira in São Paulo after winning the gold medal in the triple jump at the 1975 Pan-American Games, in Mexico City, 50 years ago.
Adhemar was right. He himself had set the world record for the sport five times, from 1950 to 1955. His best mark was 16.56 m, in Mexico City itself, where João Carlos became João do Pulo and obliterated previous records with an incredible 17.89 m.
The location’s altitude, 2,240 m, with lower air resistance compared to lower cities, certainly influenced performance. But João made it clear throughout his career that the result was not a mere result of rarefied air. In 1978, for example, in Bratislava, it achieved what was the best mark at sea level: 17.44 m.
At any time, João was good at going for distance, as were Adhemar and other great names in Brazilian athletics – Geraldo de Oliveira, Hélio Coutinho da Silva and Nelson Prudêncio –, with a tradition in the triple jump. Thus, after his glory at the Pan, with a record that would only be broken ten years later, the young man from Pindamonhangaba became a great hope for an Olympic medal.
In 1976, hampered by a back injury, he sought bronze. In 1980, in Moscow, it was also bronze, but in a different setting.
A large part of the athletics community is certain that João achieved jumps greater than 18 meters in the Olympic competition. In the context of the Cold War, in an edition of the Olympic Games held under a boycott by the United States and to the exaltation of the Soviet Union, the gold and silver went to the Soviets Jaak Uudmäe (17.35 m) and Viktor Saneyev (17.24 m). The Brazilian, with 17.22 m and only two validated jumps, came in third.
“What bothered João was that he was robbed”, said Pedro Henrique de Toledo, known as Pedrão, in an interview with Sheet four decades after the dispute, still resentful. “He made jumps, I believe, over 18 meters. He certainly won the event. But they gave him ‘foul’. It was a very sad episode.”
The star’s career ended the following year, in a car accident on the Anhanguera highway, on the outskirts of São Paulo. In a long recovery process –during which he was visited by authorities such as the President of the Republic, João Figueiredo, and the governor of São Paulo, Paulo Maluf–, he had his right leg amputated, at the age of 26.
A new phase then began in João’s career – who, in addition to breaking the world record at the Pan and winning two Olympic medals, was a three-time champion of the Athletics World Cup, the predecessor to the current World Cup. He was twice elected state deputy in São Paulo, with terms that spanned from 1987 to 1994.
The former athlete failed in his two subsequent election attempts, had problems with partners and was even arrested for late payment of a daughter’s child support. So, he retired to Guarulhos, the city in Greater São Paulo that he adopted, and isolated himself.
The routine in the final years of his life was described in a report published by Sheet in May 1999, when he was already hospitalized, in a coma, very close to death: “Walk late in the morning to the nearest bar, have one, two, three beers, watch the midday sports news, order one, two, three beers to go, spend the rest of the day locked up, alone, almost always fasting.”
João Carlos de Oliveira died on May 29, “with bronchopneumonia and hepatitis C, caused by cirrhosis”. The report from Sheet at the time he pointed out that, according to neighbors, friends and family, he spent his last years “in seclusion, aloof, with a self-destructive routine.”
Ana Maria, her sister, denied several times that her cirrhosis was caused by alcoholism. He pointed out that it was a result of hepatitis C. One way or another, it was in a daily routine of constant alcohol consumption that João do Pulo died, at the age of 45.
Francisco Jeová owned the bar on the street where João lived, in Guarulhos, and had his daughter baptized with João as godfather. According to his report in 1999, the old record holder drank “only beer”.
The joy, at that moment, was limited to football.
“He didn’t drink too much,” said Jehovah, before making an exception: “Only on Corinthians title day.”
