Jefferson Pérez
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Jefferson Leonardo Pérez Quezada (born 1 July 1974) is an Ecuadorian retired race walker. He specialised in the 20 km event, in which he won the first two medals his country achieved in the Olympic Games.[1]
Early life
Pérez was born in El Vecino, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Cuenca, to Manuel Jesús Pérez and María Lucrecia Quezada. Like others in his neighborhood, his family was of limited economic means. He attended the elementary schools Eugenio Espejo and Gabriela Cevallos. Afterwards he entered the Francisco Febres Cordero high school, at the same time working to help out his family.
He graduated in Business Engineering and later obtained an MBA (Master in Business Administration) from the University of Azuay in Ecuador.
Career
Pérez entered race-walking by accident. To prepare for a walk that served as a high school physical education exam, he asked his brother Fabián to train for one week next to the group of athletes directed by trainer Luis Muñoz. Muñoz decided to invite him to compete in a race. With few weeks of preparation he won the race AID, winning the right of representing Ecuador in New York City and London as a sport ambassador.
Initially he participated in distance competitions of six kilometers. Later he had to make a radical decision, which was to dedicate himself completely to race walking. His first regional trophy in the 5 km walk during the South American Pre-Junior championship held in his native city of Cuenca.
His first international achievement occurred when he won the bronze medal in the Junior World Cup of Athletics in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1990.
Two years later, he won the Junior World title in Seoul, Korea, followed shortly by victories in South American and Pan-American open competitions.
Olympic Games
Pérez won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, becoming the youngest ever Olympic race walk champion. Following his win he embarked on a Template:Convert pilgrimage, walking, jogging and running from Quito's Franciscan cathedral to his hometown of Cuenca.[2]
He won a silver medal, his second medal, at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. He had fourth-place finishes in the 20 km walk at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.[3][4]
World Championships
Pérez won a silver medal at the 1999 World Championships in Seville.
He then won three consecutive gold medals from 2003 to 2007 at the World Championships in Paris, Helsinki, and Osaka, the only person that has been able to achieve this feat.
Pérez's winning time of 1:17:21 in 2003 became the first official world record for the 20 km walk when standards for road events were recognised from 2004 onwards and he received a financial bonus.
Retirement
Pérez walked his final race at the World Race Walking Challenge final in Murcia, Spain. He finished third in that race and second in the overall challenge standings.[5]
He announced his retirement from the sport in 2008.[6]
Personal bests
| Event | Result | Venue | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Road walk | |||
| 10 km | 38:24 min | Template:Flagicon Kraków | 8 June 2002 |
| 20 km | 1:17:21 hrs | Template:Flagicon Paris Saint-Denis | 23 August 2003 |
| 50 km | 3:53:04 hrs | Template:Flagicon Athens | 27 August 2004 |
| Track walk | |||
| 10,000 m | 38:37.6 min (ht) | Template:Flagicon Bergen | 9 May 1998 |
| 20,000 m | 1:20:54.9 hrs (ht) | Template:Flagicon Cali | 5 July 2008 |
International competitions
In popular culture
He appeared on Japanese TV show Hey! Spring of Trivia multiple times - in one episode, he tested how long it actually took to walk to a train station from an apartment advertised as "5 minutes away" (for him, it took under 2 minutes); in another, the show tested whether he would walk or run away when threatened (he ran).
References
External links
- Template:Official website
- Template:First word Template:PAGENAMEBASE at World AthleticsTemplate:EditAtWikidataTemplate:WikidataCheck
- Template:Olympics.com
- Template:Olympedia
- Photos about his technique
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "True Olympians"
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Template:Cite Sports-Reference
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ "Ecuadorian walker Jefferson Perez trains alone for Beijing-2008", Xinhua, 23 April 2008.
- ↑ Guest
- Pages with script errors
- Pages with broken file links
- 1974 births
- Living people
- Sportspeople from Cuenca, Ecuador
- Ecuadorian male race walkers
- Olympic athletes for Ecuador
- Olympic gold medalists for Ecuador
- Olympic silver medalists for Ecuador
- Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Pan American Games gold medalists for Ecuador
- Pan American Games athletes for Ecuador
- Pan American Games gold medalists in athletics (track and field)
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1995 Pan American Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 1999 Pan American Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2003 Pan American Games
- Athletes (track and field) at the 2007 Pan American Games
- Goodwill Games medalists in athletics
- World Athletics Championships athletes for Ecuador
- World Athletics Championships medalists
- World record setters in athletics (track and field)
- South American Games gold medalists for Ecuador
- South American Games medalists in athletics
- Competitors at the 1998 South American Games
- World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships winners
- World Athletics Championships winners
- Competitors at the 2001 Summer Universiade
- Competitors at the 1998 Goodwill Games
- Medalists at the 1995 Pan American Games
- Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games
- Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games
- Medalists at the 2007 Pan American Games
- 20th-century Ecuadorian people
- 21st-century Ecuadorian sportsmen
- Bolivarian Games gold medalists for Ecuador
- Bolivarian Games medalists in athletics
- Bolivarian Games silver medalists for Ecuador