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Carlos Lopes

Carlos Lopes

Lopes in 1985
Personal information
Nationality	Portugal
Sport
Sport	Men's athletics
Medal record Olympic Games 1984 Los Angeles Marathon 1976 Montreal 10,000 m World Cross Country Championships 1976 Chepstow Long course 1984 East Rutherford Long course 1985 Lisbon Long course 1977 Düsseldorf Long course 1983 Gateshead Long course

Carlos Alberto de Sousa Lopes, GCIH (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈkaɾluʒ ˈlɔpɨʃ], born 18 February 1947) is a Portuguese former long-distance runner who competed for Sporting of Portugal at club level.^[1]

He won the marathon at the 1984 Summer OlympicsinLos Angeles, becoming Portugal's first Olympic gold medalist and setting an Olympic record for the event.^[2] This record in the men’s marathon stood for 24 years.^[3]

In 1985, Lopes set the marathon world record at 2:07:12 at the Rotterdam Marathon.

Lopes was born in Vildemoinhos, near Viseu, Portugal. He worked as a stonecutter's helper.

Lopes wanted to play football at his local club, but his father opposed this, so he turned to other sports. In 1967, he was invited to join the athletics teamofSporting Clube de Portugal where his coach was Mário Moniz Pereira,^[4] and remained there until the end of his career in 1985.^[5][6]

Lopes won the World Cross Country ChampionshipsinChepstow, Wales in 1976.

At the 1976 Summer OlympicsinMontreal, Lopes competed in the 10,000 metres. In the race, Lopes set the pace from the 4000 metres mark, and the only athlete to follow him was defending double Olympic champion Lasse Virén. Virén passed Lopes with a lap to go to win the gold medal, and Lopes finished a comfortable second.

During the race, Lopes ran the first 5,000 metres in 14:08.94, and the second 5,000 metres in 13:36.23, a remarkable proof of his ability to steadily accelerate his pace. What he generally lacked in the track races, however, was an ability to sharply increase his pace in the final lap or so.^[7]

In the following year, Lopes finished second to Leon Schots in World Cross Country Championships in Düsseldorf, Germany.

Afterward, Lopes had several injuries and did not qualify for 1980 Summer OlympicsinMoscow.

In 1982, Lopes returned to top form, and in Oslo, Norway, he broke the 10,000 metres European record with a time of 27:24.39, which belonged to his teammate Fernando Mamede.

At the 1982 European Athletics ChampionshipsinAthens, Greece, Lopes finished fourth in the 10,000 metres with a time of 27:47.95, behind the winner Alberto Cova. During the race, he set the pace from 6,000 metres to 9,800 metres before being overtaken on the final lap.^[8][9][10]

Lopes attempted his first marathon at the 1982 New York City Marathon, but he did not finish due to an accident in which he ran into a spectator.

In 1983, he finished second at the World Cross Country Championships in Gateshead, England.

Lopes ran his second marathon at the Rotterdam Marathon in 1983. He finished second in a European record time of 2:08:39, two seconds behind the race winner, Robert de Castella. He then decided to run the 10,000 metres at the 1983 World ChampionshipsinHelsinki, Finland, where he finished sixth behind the winner Alberto Cova. After that he decided to concentrate on the marathon and cross country.

In 1984, Lopes won his second World Cross Country ChampionshipsinEast Rutherford, United States.^[11]InStockholm, Sweden, he paced teammate Fernando Mamede to break Henry Rono's 10,000 metres world record of 27:22.50.^[12] Mamede won in 27:13.81 with Lopes finishing second in 27:17.48.

An accident almost prevented Lopes from participating in the 1984 Summer OlympicsinLos Angeles when, a week before the Games, he was run over by a car in Lisbon but he was not hurt.

The Olympic marathon at Los Angeles was run in very warm conditions, and as the favorites gradually fell away, Lopes won the gold medal with a 200 metres advantage and in an Olympic record time of 2:09:21 at the age of 37. This victory established his reputation as a world class runner, because he ran the last 7.2 kilometres (4.5 mi) at an average speed of 2:55 per km (4:42 per mile), a remarkably quick pace at the end of a marathon.^[13][14] Lopes' Olympic record stood until the 2008 Summer OlympicsinBeijing, China, when Kenyan Sammy Wanjiru won with a time of 2:06:32.

In 1985, Lopes won the World Cross Country Championships in Lisbon, Portugal for the third and final time in his career.

In the last major competitive race of his career, the 1985 Rotterdam Marathon, Lopes took 53 seconds off the world's best marathon time with a winning time of 2:07.12, and becoming the first man to run 42.195 km in less than 2:08.00.

• L'Équipe: "Fantastic! Extraordinary! There aren't enough strong words to label Lopes Rotterdam achievement. In less than 3 years, he became the first man to approach the unreal. Who would think, 20 years ago, that a man would run the marathon at 20 km/h?"'^{[citation needed]}
• Rotterdam press: "With his magic talent, Carlos Lopes took 54 seconds off the previous world best. With his fabulous pace he reached the world record with apparent ease. It's said he received US$150,000 just to come to Rotterdam, plus US$67,000 in prizes. A lot of money for a single man. But, in marathon's fantasy world, only a man—aged 38—is able to run it in 2:07.12: Carlos Lopes".^{[citation needed]}

• Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry

Lopes appears in the 14th episodeofseason 12ofThe Simpsons, where Homer learns in a documentary that Lopes is the oldest ever winner of the Olympic marathon, at 38, and inspires Homer, who claims to be almost his age, to enter the Springfield Marathon. Lopes was actually 37 when he won the 1984 Olympic marathon.

• Carlos LopesatWorld Athletics
• Carlos LopesatEuropean Athletics
• Carlos LopesatARRS
• Carlos LopesatOlympics.com
• Carlos LopesatOlympedia
• Profile
• Lisbon 2005/Carlos Lopes – Gold Marathon Memorial