Jefferson Pérez

Jefferson Pérez

Pérez in action
Personal information
Full name	Jefferson Leonardo Pérez Quezada
Nickname(s)	jeffi
Born	July 1, 1974 Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador
Alma mater	commercial engineer
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	60 kg (130 lb)
Sport
Country	Ecuador
Sport	Athletics
Event(s)	Racewalking
Retired	September 21, 2008 (age 34)
Achievements and titles
Olympic finals	1996 Summer Olympics 2000 Summer Olympics 2004 Summer Olympics 2008 Summer Olympics
Medal record Men’s Racewalking Representing  Ecuador Olympic Games 1996 Atlanta 20 km walk 2008 Beijing 20 km walk World Championships 2003 Paris 20 km walk 2005 Helsinki 20 km walk 2007 Osaka 20 km walk 1999 Seville 20 km walk Pan American Games 1995 Mar del Plata 20 km walk 2003 Santo Domingo 20 km walk 2007 Rio de Janeiro 20 km walk South American Games 1998 Cuenca 20 km walk Bolivarian Games 1993 Cochabamba 20 km walk 1997 Arequipa 20 km walk 2001 Ambato 20 km walk 2005 Armenia 20 km walk World Junior Championships 1990 Plovdiv 10 km walk South American Youth Championships 1988 Cuenca 5 km walk 1990 Lima 5 km walk

Jefferson Leonardo Pérez Quezada (born July 1, 1974 in Cuenca) is a retired Ecuadorian race walker. He specialized in the 20 km event, in which he has won the only two medals his country has ever achieved in the Olympic Games.

He won the gold medal at the 1996 Olympics, becoming the youngest-ever gold medal winner in the 20 km walk event. Following his win he embarked on a 459 km pilgrimage, walking, jogging and running from Quito's Franciscan cathedral to his hometown of Cuenca.^[1] In the 2008 Olympics he won the silver medal in the same competition at 34 years of age, before announcing his retirement from the sport.^[2]

In the 2003 World Championships in Paris, France, Pérez also set the world best performance (as there are no world records in race walking) with 1:17:21 in the 20 km.

Pérez had fourth-place finishes in the 20 km walk at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

Personal life

Jefferson was born in El Vecino, one of the oldest neighborhoods in Cuenca, to Manuel Jesús Pérez and María Lucrecia Quezada. Like others in his neighborhood, his family was of limited economic means. He attended the elementary schools Eugenio Espejo and Gabriela Cevallos. Afterwards he entered the Francisco Febres Cordero high school, at the same time working to help out his family.

The beginnings

Jefferson with the Ecuadorian flag.

He entered race-walking by accident. To prepare for a walk that served as a high school physical education exam, he asked his brother Fabián to train for one week next to the group of athletes directed by trainer Luis Muñoz. Muñoz decided to invite him to compete in a race. With few weeks of preparation he won the race AID, winning the right of representing Ecuador in New York City and London as a sport ambassador.

Initially he participated in distance competitions of five kilometers. Later he had to make a radical decision, which was to dedicate himself completely to race walking. His first regional trophy in the 5K walk during the South American Pre-Junior championship held in his native city of Cuenca.

His first international achievement occurred when he won the bronze medal in the Junior World Cup of Athletics in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 1990.

Two years later, he won the Junior World title in Seoul, Korea, followed shortly by victories in South American and Pan-American open competitions. His crowning achievement in race-walking came with a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. He won a silver medal, his second medal, at the Beijing Olympic Games.

He also won the silver at the World Championships of Seville in 1999, and unprecedented golds at Paris in 2003, Helsinki in 2005, and Osaka in 2007 for his third straight world title, the only person that has been able to achieve that. In France he broke the world record and he received a financial bonus.

Perez walked his final race at the World Race Walking Challenge final in Murcia, Spain. He finished third in that race and second in the overall challenge standings.^[3]

Personal bests

Event	Result	Venue	Date
Road walk
10 km	38:24 min	Kraków	8 Jun 2002
20 km	1:17:21 hrs	Paris Saint-Denis	23 Aug 2003
50 km	3:53:04 hrs	Athens	27 Aug 2004
Track walk
10,000 m	39:50.73 min	Winnipeg	15 Jul 1993
20,000 m	1:20:54.9 hrs (ht)	Cali	5 Jul 2008

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Ecuador
1988	South American Youth Championships	Cuenca, Ecuador	1st	5 km	24:44.4 min A
1989	South American Junior Championships	Montevideo, Uruguay	1st	10,000 m	45:03.71
1990	South American Junior Championships	Bogotá, Colombia	1st	10,000 m	42:57.95 A
	World Junior Championships	Plovdiv, Bulgaria	3rd	10,000 m	40:08.23
	South American Race Walking Cup (U20)	Guayaquil, Ecuador	1st	10 km	44:31.9
	South American Youth Championships	Lima, Perú	1st	5 km	19:49.54 min
1991	World Indoor Championships	Sevilla, Spain	10th	5000 m	20:20.05
	South American Junior Championships	Asunción, Paraguay	1st	10,000 m	43:10.1
	Pan American Junior Championships	Kingston, Jamaica	2nd	10,000 m	44:06.11
	South American Race Walking Cup (U20)	Bogotá, Colombia	1st	10 km	42:48.6 A
1992	Ibero-American Championships	Seville, Spain	3rd	20 km	1:25:50.5 hrs
	Olympic Games	Barcelona, Spain	—	20 km	DNF
	South American Junior Championships	Lima, Perú	1st	10,000 m	45:31.2
	World Junior Championships	Seoul, South Korea	1st	10,000 m	40:42.66
	South American Race Walking Cup (U20)	São Paulo, Brazil	1st	10 km	45:39
1993	Bolivarian Games	Cochabamba, Bolivia	1st	20 km	1:26:19 hrs A
	South American Junior Championships	Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela	1st	10,000 m	42:24.2
	South American Championships	Lima, Perú	1st	20 km	1:24:31
	Pan American Junior Championships	Winnipeg, Canada	1st	10,000 m	39:50.73
1994	South American Race Walking Cup	Sucre, Bolivia	1st	20 km	1:30:04 A
	Pan American Race Walking Cup	Atlanta, Georgia, United States	3rd	20 km	1:24:34
	Ibero-American Championships	Mar del Plata, Argentina	5th	20 km	1:26:08.2 hrs
1995	South American Race Walking Cup	Cuenca, Ecuador	1st	20 km	1:27:46 A
	Pan American Games	Mar del Plata, Argentina	1st	20 km	1:22:53
	World Championships	Gothenburg, Sweden	33rd	20 km	1:34:20
1996	South American Race Walking Cup	São Paulo, Brazil	1st	20 km	1:25:33
	Olympic Games	Atlanta, Georgia, United States	1st	20 km	1:20:07
1997	South American Race Walking Cup	Bogotá, Colombia	1st	20 km	1:26:19 A
	World Race Walking Cup	Poděbrady, Czech Republic	1st	20 km	1:18:24
	World Championships	Athens, Greece	14th	20 km	1:24:46
	Bolivarian Games	Arequipa, Perú	1st	20 km	1:27:54 hrs A
1998	South American Race Walking Cup	Bogotá, Colombia	1st	20 km	1:22:53 A
	Pan American Race Walking Cup	Miami, Florida, United States	—	50 km	DNF
	Goodwill Games	Uniondale, New York, United States	3rd	20,000 m	1:29:18.4
	South American Games	Cuenca, Ecuador	1st	20 km	1:23:11 A
1999	World Race Walking Cup	Mézidon-Canon, France	—	50 km	DNF
	Pan American Games	Winnipeg, Canada	3rd	20 km	1:20:46
	World Championships	Seville, Spain	2nd	20 km	1:24:19
2000	South American Race Walking Cup	Lima, Perú	1st	20 km	1:30:50
	Pan American Race Walking Cup	Poza Rica, Veracruz, México	3rd	20 km	1:24.36
	Olympic Games	Sydney, Australia	4th	20 km	1:20:18
2001	World Championships	Edmonton, Canada	8th	20 km	1:22:20
	Universiade	Beijing, China	5th	20 km	1:26:11
	Bolivarian Games	Ambato, Ecuador	1st	20 km	1:30:27 hrs A
	South American Race Walking Cup	Cuenca, Ecuador	1st	20 km	1:26:21 A
	Pan American Race Walking Cup		2nd
	South American Race Walking Cup		1st	Team	10 pts
	Pan American Race Walking Cup		2nd		21 pts
2002	World Race Walking Cup	Turin, Italy	1st	20 km	1:21:26
			4th	Team	61 pts
	South American Race Walking Cup	Puerto Saavedra, Chile	—	20 km	DNF
	Ibero-American Championships	Ciudad de Guatemala, Guatemala	1st	20,000 m	1:23:51 A
2003	Pan American Race Walking Cup	Chula Vista, California, United States	1st	20 km	1:23:12
			2nd	Team	13 pts
	Pan American Games	Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic	1st	20 km	1:23:06
	World Championships	Paris Saint-Denis, France	1st	20 km	1:17:21
2004	World Race Walking Cup	Naumburg, Germany	1st	20 km	1:18:42
			2nd	Team	35 pts
	Olympic Games	Athens, Greece	4th	20 km	1:20:38
			12th	50 km	3:53:04
2005	South American Championships	Cali, Colombia	1st	20 km	1:22:54 A
	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	1st	20 km	1:18:35
	Bolivarian Games	Armenia, Colombia	2nd	20 km	1:24:22 hrs A
2006	South American Race Walking Championships	Cochabamba, Bolivia	1st	20 km	1:26:27 A
			2nd	Team	12 pts
	World Race Walking Cup	La Coruña, Spain	2nd	20 km	1:19:08
			7th	Team	68 pts
2007	Pan American Race Walking Cup	Balneário Camboriú, Brazil	1st	20 km	1:25:08
	Pan American Games	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1st	20 km	1:22.08
	World Championships	Osaka, Japan	1st	20 km	1:22:20
2008	Central American and Caribbean Championships	Cali, Colombia	1st[4]	20,000 m	1:20:54.9 A
	Olympic Games	Beijing, China	2nd	20 km	1:19:15

In popular culture

He appeared on Japanese TV show Hey! Spring of Trivia multiple times - in one episode, he tested how long it actually took to walk to a train station from an apartment advertised as "5 minutes away" (for him, it took under 2 minutes); in another, the show tested whether he would walk or run away when threatened (he ran).

References

1. "True Olympians"
2. "Ecuadorian walker Jefferson Perez trains alone for Beijing-2008", Xinhua, April 23, 2008.
3. "Fernandez and Feitor take Murcia wins; Overall titles for Tallent & Plätzer – Race Walking Challenge Final". IAAF. 21 September 2008. Archived from the original on 22 September 2008. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
4. Guest

External links

• Jefferson Pérez profile at IAAF
• Official Homepage
• Photos about his technique
• Sports reference biography
• Biscayart, Eduardo (29 September 2008). "Jefferson Pérez, a true Champion, retires". IAAF. Retrieved 1 May 2016.