After Patrícia Sampaio, Portugal once again had a Portuguese athlete in the spotlight at the Olympic Games, even if without a medal. Hours after the show by Simone Biles and Rebeca Andrade, buoyed by Nadia Comaneci, the Arena Bercy in Paris still had traces of genius – Gabriel Albuquerque, a Portuguese, collected some of them, added them to his own, which are not few, and used them for personal and national benefit: he even “smelled” the medal and leaves France with a fifth place in the trampoline event that had never been achieved before.
The event was won by Ivan Litvinovich (63.090), competing as a neutral athlete, with silver going to Zisai Wang from China (61.800) and bronze to Langyu Yan, also Chinese (60.950). Gabriel Albuquerque (59.750) perhaps did not have the level for the score that earned gold for Litvinovich – the Portuguese gymnast admitted this in Paris –, but the scores for silver and bronze were within reach, which is why he says that the fifth place tasted a bit bland.
Before the Olympic Games, there was a lot of talk about Pedro Pablo Pichardo, Fernando Pimenta, and Jorge Fonseca. Even if a bit less, Iúri Leitão, Gustavo Ribeiro, and Angélica André were also mentioned. Even Agate de Sousa, Messias Baptista, João Ribeiro, Catarina Costa, and Diogo Ribeiro were discussed. All of them had in common, even if some more than others, the prospect of a remarkable result at the Olympic Games. Two were missing: Patrícia Sampaio and Gabriel Albuquerque. One won a medal, the other was close.
We are not talking about two unknowns “fallen from the sky.” In Gabriel’s case, it is evident that a fourth-place finish at the Trampoline World Championships in 2023 had already been mentioned in newsrooms planning for the Games. But let’s be blunt, he was not at the forefront of favorites. This applies both to newsrooms and to a country known for football.
This Friday, the Portuguese gymnast set the health of his rivals straight, but also for the Portuguese: dear compatriots, he is a man for medals – it wasn’t in Paris, but Los Angeles is coming up.
Challenged to say what he likes most and least about gymnastics, he pointed out that he loves aerial freedom and dislikes the lack of visibility. Perhaps this changes now for gymnastics – sponsorship of Gabriel Albuquerque.
Best Ever
At 18 years old, having turned in April, the gymnast from Almada, training for several years in the Algarve, surpassed Nuno Merino’s sixth place in Athens 2004.
Gabriel Albuquerque was buoyed by the massive support in Arena Bercy – only the French athlete had more support. But he also buoyed himself.
He, who writes songs in his spare time, adhered strictly to his hobby and was the only finalist who brought music in his ears until he could not anymore – he went to the trampoline during warm-up, with the music helping him relax. And he appeared free, light, and loose after his aggressive rap. “I was listening to that underground rap. That same aggressive one,” he confided after the event, jokingly promising that he will make an album with the songs he writes during bus rides to training and competitions.
In trampolining, the rule is relatively simple: the athlete performs their routine, which is evaluated for execution, time in the air, deviation from the center, among other technical details such as reception and postural correction – all supported by a basic premise: the difficulty level of the routine chosen by the athlete.
And Gabriel bet, in the qualifying round, on a balance between risk and safety – he was not among those who took the biggest risks in difficulty, but he also did not “hold back.” He had the seventh most difficult exercise from the start and executed it well.
The ten jumps planned in the routine were “on point,” with no major deviations from the center – only one correction in the middle of the routine – and the trainer’s smiles at the end of the event showed satisfaction with the performance. Final secured, but he ended up falling in the second routine – which no longer counted “for the betting pool.”
In the final, he presented a routine of high difficulty level and gained some margin for minor mistakes – which existed. The score was practically the same as in the qualifying round and was not enough for the podium due to a slight deviation in the middle of the routine. The athlete himself later explained that at that moment he had to adjust the difficulty level of the routine, which could have been even higher.
“I was supposed to do a more complicated series, but I felt out of sorts on the fourth jump. That was when I was going to do something more difficult and go after the medal. I couldn’t and had to stick to the simpler series. In those milliseconds I was in the air, I had to decide like that,” he explained.
Gabriel had a small lapse, but at 18 years old, in Los Angeles, everything is at the mercy of the Portuguese.