Pedro Pablo Pichardo Portuguese track and field athlete Date of Birth: 30.06.1993 Country: Portugal

1. Early Life and Career in Cuba
2. Cuban National Record
3. Defection to Portugal
4. Career Highlights in Portugal
5. Olympic and World Championships Golds

Early Life and Career in Cuba

Cuban-born Pedro Pablo Pichardo is a track-and-field athlete specializing in the triple jump. His early athletic career was marked by numerous achievements in Cuba. In 2013, he won the Cuban National Championships with a jump of 17.69 meters. The following year, at the 2014 Cuban Championships, he broke the 29-year-old championship record with a jump of 17.71 meters.

Cuban National Record

Pichardo's record-breaking continued in 2015. On May 8, he improved the Cuban national record to 17.94 meters. Just a week later, at the Diamond League meet in Doha, he became the first Cuban to break the 18-meter barrier, jumping to an impressive 18.04 meters. His national record was further extended to 18.08 meters at a competition in Havana on May 28. This jump placed him third all-time in the history of the triple jump, behind only Jonathan Edwards and Kenny Harrison.

Defection to Portugal

In April 2017, Pichardo left the Cuban national team training camp in Stuttgart and subsequently sought asylum in Portugal. He signed a contract with the Benfica club on April 27, 2017. After receiving Portuguese citizenship on December 7, 2017, he became eligible to compete for Portugal beginning on August 1, 2019.

Career Highlights in Portugal

Representing Portugal, Pichardo set a new Portuguese triple jump record of 17.95 meters at the IAAF Diamond League in Doha in May 2018. At the 2019 World Championships in Doha, he finished fourth with a jump of 17.62 meters, narrowly missing out on a medal to Yug Fabrice Zango of Burkina Faso.

Olympic and World Championships Golds

Pichardo's remarkable career continued in 2021 when he won the European Indoor Championships in Toruń, Poland, with a jump of 17.30 meters. The pinnacle of his career came at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, where he claimed the gold medal in the triple jump with a Portuguese record of 17.98 meters. This placed him third among European triple jumpers of all time.

In 2022, Pichardo made history by becoming the first Portuguese to win a world title. At the World Indoor Championships in Belgrade, he finished second with a Portuguese indoor record of 17.46 meters. He followed this up with a gold medal at the World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where he jumped 17.95 meters to edge out Zango. The year culminated in a victory at the European Athletics Championships in Munich, where he jumped 17.50 meters.