“Of course, in the context in which the Games took place [pandemia de covid-19], with the vicissitudes of the sports preparation process, having achieved these results naturally fills us with satisfaction and I am sure that this is the feeling of the majority of Portuguese people who were thrilled with this success, which is a success that also creates responsibilities for the future, because now nobody is prepared to have less than what they had”, consider.

In an interview with Lusa agency, José Manuel Constantino pointed to Paris2024, acknowledging that in the next Olympic Games “the step to be taken cannot be smaller than that which took place at the Tokyo Games”, postponed a year due to the pandemic of covid- 19 and disputed without public and under severe restrictions, after an Olympic qualification process heavily disturbed by the impact of the new coronavirus, which emerged in China in December 2019.

After the unprecedented four medals won in the Japanese capital – Pedro Pablo Pichardo’s gold in the triple jump, a discipline in which Patrícia Mamona achieved silver, and the bronzes of judoka Jorge Fonseca (in -100kg) and canoeist Fernando Pimenta (in K1 1,000 meters) -, of the 11 diplomas, including fourth place by Auriol Dongmo, in the shot put, and the best score ever in the Olympic Games (78 points, evaluated by athletes ranked between first and eighth places, plus 27 than in Athens2004), the manager insists that “no one is prepared to have less” in Paris2024.

Re-candidate for the presidency of the organization he has led since 2013, Constantino raises, without constraints, the bar for the next games.

“If a certain number of podium positions is reached, one expectation of the Portuguese is that it does not fall short. Because if it falls short, this is understood as an unreached goal. For the positions up to 16th place, the best Olympic participation of the different missions We cannot face participation in Paris with the objective of falling short of what has been achieved”, he insisted.

And it is not only “from the point of view of results” that the president of the COP expects more from the Mission of Portugal, extending the purpose of improvement also to the diversification of representation.

“We need to have the modalities that we already have, I hope that there are other modalities that can achieve Olympic qualification results and that having a Mission with more modalities, with higher competitive levels, and that the final results translate into an improvement in relation to the situation that we have achieved “, he enumerated.

The “burden and responsibility” are great, but José Manuel Constantino, the only candidate announced for the events of March 10, sees them as natural, after his historic participation in Tokyo2020.

AMG // JP

Portuguese / End