Former swimmer and former president of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, Paulo Frischknecht, highlights the approach of Diogo Ribeiro, a 17-year-old swimmer who won three gold medals at the junior world championships.
“It is an extraordinary feat. It is a new situation. It is remarkable, mainly for the consistency, the focus and the work that it reveals”, describes the former swimmer.
According to the former president of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, this result had been expected for several generations: “I think successive generations were already looking forward to one of these days in swimming and seeing him alive ends up doubling his value and his interest”. It is an exceptional situation. Three titles in the junior category and a record, in addition to what many athletes achieved for many years, which were good international sports results”.
Alexandre Yokochi is the main reference in Portuguese swimming. In 1984, he placed seventh in the 200m breaststroke at the Los Angeles Olympics, becoming the first and only Portuguese to reach an Olympic final in the sport.
However, Paulo Frischknecht asks for care in comparisons. “I think comparisons are unnecessary, because there are other times, other calendars, other ways of working and, in Diogo’s case, not even styles and techniques different from those of Alexandre Yokochi, but he has all the conditions to do, at least , the same. match and surpass what has marked Portuguese swimming to date, which was a final in the Olympic Games”, believes the former swimmer.
The former head of the Portuguese Swimming Federation, who left office ten years ago, also maintains that the moment is different, and that Portuguese swimming athletes and other modalities no longer feel intimidated by foreigners.
“The talent exists and the conditions are now different. Fortunately we are improving. The will and the ambition are different and our athletes do not feel diminished in the confrontation with other countries or other powers of the sport. (…) What is a fact is that the last two decades have brought tremendous results to Portugal on an international scale. The future is optimistic”, he concludes, recalling the good results that Portugal has had in recent years in other sports.
Source: TSF
