The former Olympian who continues to collect medals with Yulimar Rojas and Ana Pelletiero

at the spot, Ivan Lazaro Pedroso Soler Created a superstar team.

A strong personality and an impressive sporting career preceded him. He has been immortalized as one of the greatest jumpers in history after winning an Olympic gold medal (Sydney 2000) and winning four times at the World Outdoor Championships and five more times at the World Indoor Championships.

But his achievement did not end with his retirement. One of his newest achievements is the formation of an unbeatable team of jumpers in Guadalajara, a city of about 87,000 inhabitants that for more than 30 years has become a highly competitive training center for athletes of the stature of Javier Sotomayor and Alberto Juantorina.

Using the same simple strategy, Away from the gaze of the press and the hustle and bustle of big cities, In my humble seemingly insignificant stadium from the highway, The Cuban jumper is training “Team Pedroso” who has so far won two medals in Tokyo 2020.

The first of the greats to join “la peña” Pedroso was the French trio Teddy Tamgo In 2010, who broke the indoor world record three times but had to give up his Olympic dreams due to a series of injuries. Now he is Pedroso’s right hand to fine tune his better jumping techniques.

Athletics track Fuente de la Nina is where magic was practiced. There the Venezuelan athlete arrived excitedly Yulimar Rogas At the age of twenty, after contacting him on Facebook, to tame his impulsiveness and polish his extraordinary talent.

Shortly after the arrival of the Galician Anna Pelletiro To rebuild a fractured career after shining in the junior championships and shattered with the slips of fame and adolescence away from home.

Burkina Faso Hugo Fabrice Zango He also joined the Pedroso-Tamgho duo and is now flying. The triple jump in July 2021 broke his African record for the fourth time with a jump of 17.82 metres, 15 centimeters more than the one he set in June.

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Portuguese jump Nelson Evora It is the oldest of the Pedroso clan. A gold medalist at the 2007 World Cup in Osaka and the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Ivory Coast-born athlete didn’t throw in the towel and trains to stay in international competitions.

Finally Tokyo

The much-anticipated ‘Team Pedroso’ day came on Sunday, August 1, when Rojas and Pelletiro met in the triple jump final.

And everything went as Pedroso expected. The 48-year-old coach led Yulimar Rojas to the top, the Venezuelan record holder, who broke by 17 cm the record set by Ukrainian Inessa Kravets since 1995, with a jump of 15.67 meters. The laughing girl who sometimes torments him with her sauce and reggaeton rampage won the Olympic gold and became the undisputed queen of the triple jump.

But he also managed to get Pelletiero to his waist, Who made the utmost effort in his last jump to secure bronze.

“We knew this was the perfect time and place. For me she is the best (Rojas), I think Today is the happiest day of my life as a coach. “My other athlete was a bronze medalist and I can’t ask for more,” Pedroso triumphantly told the press.

At the Olympic Stadium, Pedroso did not stop advising his students He was wearing a red shirt Which distinguish the national teams of Venezuela.

A report in El País newspaper described a hypothetical Olympic victory for “Team Pedroso”

“It would be a great victory for what might be called the Afro-Cuban school of the trio, such as island music, such as the Cameroonian roots of Tamjo, the African strength of Zango, the Doha bronze medalist, the Cuban passion of Pedroso, the cheerful Caribbean Rojas. There is also the African Galician Ana Pelletiero, Hungry to win a medal. The world’s best triple jump.”

look here Complete Medal Table From the Tokyo Olympics

Pedroso prides himself on having “state secrets” for coaching his athlete, A kind of flower that blends tricks he learned from his Cuban coach Milan Matos with American, Russian and French techniques.

Observers comment that Pedroso plays a paternalistic role, sets boundaries, establishes discipline, demands excellence but also respects the individuality of the athletes. He himself comments on that The basis of the relationship is communication, Talk about it all even if they disagree sometimes. and that is family feeling This allowed Rojas, Pelletiero, Zango, and Evora to absorb their failures, correct their shortcomings and maintain what he calls the “hunger” for victory during the pandemic.

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