dos SANTOS Almir

General
SWITCH TO TRIPLE JUMP
For almost 10 years he was only focused on high jump. "I always stood out in high jump since my first test. So, all my athletics life was focused on high jump." At the end of 2016 he entered a triple jump competition for the first time since he was a junior. "I always had a hidden passion for the horizontal jumps. I was aware that some things I was doing in practice were comparable with what some of the other top triple jumpers around the world were doing. I was curious to find out if this translated to distances in the competitive arena." During the competition, in which he jumped 15.89m, he was spotted by coach Nelio Moura, former coach of 2008 Olympic champion Irving Saladino. Moura told Dos Santos' coach, Jose Haroldo Loureiro Gomes, that he should focus on the triple jump. "We were at the beginning of a new Olympic cycle, so my coach and I decided to switch events and focus on the triple jump. Of course, it was not easy to train for a new event. The preparation for the triple jump take-off was very different to that of the high jump and changing the transition between the approach and take-off board, coupled with being able to sustain the high intensity on the body during the three triple jump phases, were the greatest challenges." He later found more inspiration to compete in triple jump after reading about the history of the event in which three Brazilian athletes had claimed six Olympic medals in the event. "I feel so proud of what they achieved. That motivated me, because Brazil has history and is respected in triple jump." (worldathletics.org, 23 May 2018; globoplay.globo.com, 13 Mar 2018)