He broke his ribs once, but he will not stop diving across the finish line: Story of Portuguese runner Joao Vitor de Oliveira

In the men’s 110 m hurdles heats of the European Athletics Championship in Munich, running in the sixth lane, Oliveira dived past Belgium’s Michel Obasuy to finish fourth, ahead by two hundredths of a second.

Oliveira’s dive resembled the one Tokyo Olympics javelin champion Neeraj Chopra took after throwing the javelin in his first throw that won him the gold.

Oliveira’s dive also meant Obasuy was denied the qualification spot in the semi-finals and with the European Athletics sharing the exciting finish over social media, it also put back the focus on Oliveira.

The Portuguese athlete has so far only one international title in a race outside Portugal apart from a bronze in the Pan American U-20 Championships as a junior

It wasn’t the first time that Oliveira has dived though.

Last month, Oliveira had become the Portuguese national 100m hurdles champion by diving to edge out Addel Larrinaga by three hundredths of a second to claim the title. While Oliveira was representing his club Benfica Lisbon last month, the Portuguese’s first claim to fame attempting to dive across the finish line had come in the 100m hurdles semi-finals in Rio Olympics in 2016.

The dive though, did not help him to qualify for the final as he finished ninth.

“I always do that. That is not an accident. I started doing it a long time ago. If I am in a fight, I will always put myself first. I did it in China at the World Championships and I broke my ribs. People tell me not to but I will do it. It comes from the heart. I am in my home Olympics,” Oliveira had told reporters post the Rio Olympics in 2016.

That dive to the line was timed to perfection! 👌

Joao Vitor De Oliveira 🇵🇹 qualifies for the 110m hurdles semifinal…by 0.002! 😯#Munich2022 #BackToTheRoofs pic.twitter.com/pQlvlHeLsL

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) August 16, 2022

It wasn’t the first time that the Olympics saw such a tactic. While the World Athletics (Earlier IAAF) clearly state that “The athletes shall be placed in the order in which any part of their bodies (i.e torso, as distinguished from the head, neck, arms, legs, hands or feet) reached the vertical place of the near edge of the finish line as defined above,” most of the athletes choose to lean over the finish line in an attempt to get past their rivals.

In 2008 Beijing Olympics, David Neville of USA running in the eighth lane had dived across the line to win the bronze medal ahead of Bahamas runner Chris Brown by 0.4 seconds.

The most famous incident of what experts refer to shallow diving was another Bahamas runner Shaunae Miller beating USA runner Allyson Felix by 0.41 seconds to win the gold in the women’s 400 m race in Rio Olympics in 2016.

Miller, who is eight years younger to Felix and was 22 at that time, was running in the seventh lane and had made a lead in the final 100m of the race ahead of Felix, who was running in the fourth lane.

A tiring Miller saw Felix cutting the lead and within meters of the finish line, Miller made a dive landing on the track with her hands and body clocking a time of 49.44 seconds ahead of Felix’s 49.51 seconds to deny the American the gold. The win also sparked a debate among athletes as well fans at that time and the former 200m and 400m Olympic champion Michael Johnson was quick to tweet post the final.

Joao Vitor de Oliveira. (Reuters/FILE)

“Sprinters know the quickest way across the line is a well-timed lean. Trust me on that,” tweeted Johnson. While coaches and athletes believe that after leaving the feet near the finish line in an attempt to lean over helps, shallow diving means that the initial push can give an advantage. “What was in my mind was, I had to get a gold medal. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground. I’ve never done it before,” Miller said. “I have cuts and bruises, a few burns. It hurts.” Miller had told NYT after the race.

This moment from Rio 2016! 🤯

Happy Birthday to gold medallist, Shaunae Miller-Uibo! 🇧🇸#StrongerTogetherpic.twitter.com/JFf48NGY8R

— The Olympic Games (@Olympics) April 15, 2021

Felix’s coach Lance Brauman too praised Miller for the win. “It’s very unfortunate that people are commenting on something that they clearly don’t understand the rules about. She leaned for the line and her legs gave out from the effort she put into the race. I am very excited for her and she is a very deserving champion,” Brauman had told NYT. With the controversy and talk happening about diving or not, the then IAAF, athletics’s world governing body also did make it clear that it comes within the rules. ‘We do continue to look at our rules to make sure they are current. If we start seeing a pattern of these sort of things, we would look at that. But it’s first across the line, not the first across the line in the most gracefull way. It’s very well policed what crossing the line means,” IAAF spokesperson had told NYT.

Felix too had talked about the tactics of diving or leaning post the Rio Olympics while talking to The Herd in a video interview. “I think the rules are rules. I think you know if it’s you are leaning or if you are falling, that’s how you cross the line, you know that’s what it is. I think that if it’s starts to become a thing, where people are diving intentionally as a strategy to win the race, I think then it does become something different. But I think we have been in situations where you lean and then you are falling in, that happens,” Felix had said.

Four-time Olympic medallist Ato Boldon, too, believed that diving is not a good idea but also said that it’s part of the sport. “It has pissed me off greatly to see people saying it was ethical or a cheap move. I am trying to stay off social media about it because I will go off. Diving happens all the time and it just feels like Americans are pissed because Allyson lost. No one is a bigger Allyson fan than I am but she lost. Live with it. Diving is usually not a good idea. It kills your momentum and usually doesn’t achieve the desired result,” Boldon had told Sports Illustrated in 2016.

Boldon can say diving is not a good idea but come Wednesday, Oliveira can once again make that diving attempt in the semi-finals to try to move into the final in Munich knowing the risk fully that if he dives short, he can fall short.