Death of
a Tragic
Jumper

Oscar, the former basketball player hero, was there as well as judo Olympic champion, Aurélio Miguel, and Ademar Ferreira da Silva, twice Olympic champion (1952 and 1956) for triple jump Several authorities came to say goodbye, including São Paulo governor Mário Covas. Some 2,000 people in all paid their last respect to a man who was better known as João do Pulo (Jumping John) after winning the Olympic gold medal in the triple jump category. There was also an honor guard from the Army, where João Carlos de Oliveira served as a lieutenant, and the wake was held at the São Paulo Assembly building where Oliveira served as an elected state assemblyman for two four-year mandates.

Despite the pomp and circumstance, the Olympic hero and record breaker felt forgotten by Brazilians. He started to drink heavily and died of cirrhosis of the liver on Saturday, May 29, the day after his 45th birthday, having spent one month at the Beneficência Portuguesa Hospital in São Paulo. He was buried in Pindamonhangaba, the little town in the São Paulo interior where he was born.

João Sete Vidas (John Seven Lives) was another of his nicknames. It had to do with all the adversity and tragedies he had to face during his life: a poor childhood, a fight against tuberculosis when he was five, and the 1981 accident that caused the amputation of his right leg. His father was as a railway man. Oliveira was still a little boy when his mother died and he was raised by a stepmother who allegedly beat him constantly.

From 1986 to 1994 he was an assemblyman. The hero jumper was elected with 25,000 votes the first time and with 32,000 the second. Attempts in 1994 and four years later to return to his old office failed, though. He couldn't get more than 7,000 votes during his last ill-fated campaign in 1998. That same year, the mother of his daughter Thaís, 11—he was never married to her—took him to court for non-payment of child support. Unable to pay, he ended up in jail. In another forum a suit is still pending, claiming he is the father of a 4-year old boy, Emanuel.

In an emotional statement to Rio's daily O Globo, Pedro Henrique Camargo de Toledo, 59, Oliveira's former coach, declared: "I am going to repeat what other people have said, `João was one of the greatest athletes the world has ever known. He was born at the wrong time, in a country without an athletic tradition and had a coach who lacked the credentials to work with a talent like his. Someone with more experience would have probably done more for him and were I his coach today I don't know how far he would be able to jump.

"What saddens me most is the way we forgot João and so many other idols. We wait until they die, are killed or go through some tragedy before we put them in the news. I guess this is a cultural question in Brazil. The government or some other organization should take the initiative—and this does not mean getting handouts from the government. In Mexico there is a program to help those who get Olympic medals. They may be invited to openings, conferences and to work on sports centers. This is a way to avoid burying them alive."

Who's
That Man?

It was October 15, 1975, when Brazilians and the world first took notice of a young Brazilian competing at the Pan-American Games in Mexico. He jumped 17.89 m (58.69 feet) in the triple jump, an astounding 45 cm (1.47 feet) more than the record established by Russian Vladimir Swanesev. João was 21. That's when he became João do Pulo. The record would be broken only ten year later by American Willie Banks, who jumped 17.97 m.

On December 22, 1981, João do Pulo was driving back from being honored at Campinas Catholic University PUC when his Volkswagen Passat collided with another car coming the wrong way on the Anhangüera roadway. The other driver died. Oliveira remained in a coma for four days, and after 23 operations the doctors gave up trying to save his right leg. The athlete spent 333 days at the hospital. He was 27, with a very promising future, when his leg was amputated on September 8, 1982.

He was seen as the favorite in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games, but ended up losing to the Russian Viktor Saneev, getting a bronze medal instead. In the next Olympics, in Moscow, he again came in third, (there were charges of fraud benefiting the Russian athlete). He continued winning several international competitions, including the one in Rome in September 1981, when he became triple jump champion for the third time. In 1992 Harry Seinberg, coach for Estonia, admitted that there had been fraud in Moscow in 1980 and apologized to the Brazilian athlete. But later he recanted.

Lately João do Paulo had a daily routine in Guarulhos, Greater São Paulo, where he lived. Late in the afternoons he used to sit alone on a little stool outside his house drinking beer and looking at people go by. If anybody asked he didn't refuse an autograph. But these requests had become rarer and rarer. He was surviving on a $700 pension he received for the time he served in the Army. A bakery and a transportation company he started went bankrupt. In better times his house was always full of people and he had memorable barbecue parties, which could last three days, with gifts for the children. Then there was no money left.

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