Vanderlei de Lima

Vanderlei de Lima (2004)

Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima (born August 11, 1969 in Cruzeiro do Oeste , Paraná ) is a former Brazilian long-distance runner who specialized in the marathon .

Live and act

In 1996 he won the Tokyo International Men's Marathon in 2: 08: 38h, in 1997 he finished second at the Seoul International Marathon and finished 23rd at the World Athletics Championships in Athens . In 1998 de Lima finished second in Tokyo with his personal best of 2:08:31. That same year he finished fifth in the New York City Marathon . In 1999 he won the Pan American Games marathon in Winnipeg and finished third in the Fukuoka Marathon in 2: 08: 40h. The following year he finished third in the Rotterdam marathon in 2:08:34 and finished 75th in the marathon of the Olympic Games in Sydney .

In 2002 he won the São Paulo Marathon . In 2004 he won the Hamburg Marathon in 2:09:39 .

During the marathon of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, he became world famous through a spectacular incident. There he already pulled away from the rest of the field at KM 20 and in the meantime had a lead of one and a half minutes on the field of pursuers. With five kilometers to go, the lead had shrunk to half a minute when de Lima was dragged off the road by Cornelius Horan , who jumped out of the crowd. The Brazilian lost about 20 seconds because of this incident, lost his rhythm and was soon overtaken by Stefano Baldini and Mebrahtom Keflezighi . However, De Lima persevered and was able to defend the bronze rank until the finish. Jacques Rogge , then President of the IOC , presented de Lima with the Pierre de Coubertin Medal for exemplary sportsmanship on August 29, 2004 .

Lima igniting the Olympic flame (2016)

At the opening of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro , he was the last runner of the Olympic torch relay and lit the Olympic flame in the Maracanã Stadium .

literature

• Renata Adrião D'Angelo: Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima: a maratona de uma vida . Rio de Janeiro, Casa da Palavra, Comitê Olímpico Brasileiro, 2007 (Perfil do atleta 2), ISBN 9788577340309

Web links

Commons : Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Vanderlei de Lima in the database of World Athletics (English)
• Athlete portrait on marathoninfo.free.fr
• Italian first, American surprising second in bizarre marathon - Defrocked Irish priest attacks runner - De Lima to get sportsmanship medal following marathon , reports from AP and Reuters about the incident in Athens, 29./30. August 2004