Swimmer Diogo Ribeiro arrived in Lisbon on Tuesday after winning three gold medals at the World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru, and confessed that he already dreams of attending the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 17-year-old, a three-time world champion and world record holder, was received at Humberto Delgado Airport by a large group of colleagues and friends, and confessed that the four medals were the goal, but that he never thought he would arrive with three golds.
“We expected four medals, including the 100 freestyle, but we didn’t expect the three gold medals. It was pretty good and it’s great motivation to work. I hope the future is even brighter and that I, maybe one day, win a medal in the Olympics,” said the Benfica athlete, adding that he “already had the record in his head,” referring to the best junior record in history in the 50m mariposa.
Diogo Ribeiro entered the record books by winning the 50-meter butterfly in 22.96 seconds, improving the figure of Russian Andrei Minakov (23.05) by nine hundredths, all achieved a year after a serious motorcycle accident, which left the 17 year old in a hospital bed.
“A year ago I lay in bed without moving, now I’m better than ever. Let’s see if I can keep my mind focused and not ‘crap’ this vacation. It was very hard, but my family was always by my side , my coach, the whole ‘staff’, my friends and all my colleagues,” he said.
One of the fundamental parts in the evolutionary process of the Benfica swimmer was the coach Alberto Silva, better known as Albertinho, with whom he started working a year ago. The Brazilian coach says the secret was in the evolution from Diogo as a boy to Diogo as an adult.
“In Rome [Europeus],,I was already satisfied, and didn’t want to create any expectations. Everything was great. I know the pressure is mounting for him and Roma would have been very good even without the medal. The planning, the technical part, the technical evolution is a competitive maturity to go from boy to adult. He has a lot of talent and we were already anticipating the possibility that he would compete in absolute championships, so the idea for this season was for him to get that maturity,” said Alberto Silva, president of the coaching staff of the Portuguese Swimming Federation.
Exercise changes included regular trips to the gym and shorter distances.
“Albertinho is a very good coach. I didn’t go to the gym, this year I started it, I didn’t train for speed, this year I started it. I trained longer, longer distances and this year I started more working on the details and that was the explosion for my body. It was what my body needed. This year I was working in the water nine times a week, four times in the gym, every day,” said the young swimmer, who combines swimming with online teaching.
The Benfica swimmer had a dream performance in Lima, he was also voted the best swimmer in the world and after a week of vacation, he has all his next goals in mind.
“First, I want to reach the Olympic minimums. Then I have the Fukuoka World Cups and the dream is again the medal,” he continued.
In Lima, Diogo Ribeiro won the world junior swimming title in the 50m butterfly, setting a world record for juniors (22.96 seconds), 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly.
Source: DN
