Erik takes faith to the tracks to overcome limits in athletics – 08/19/2023 – Sport

Erik Cardoso, 23, follows a ritual every time he trains on the Sesi charcoal track, in Santo André. The sprinter first prays and thanks God for the opportunities that life has given him. Afterwards, he writes on the floor the time he wants to overcome in the 100 m event, the most traditional in athletics.

He has already looked for 9s93, tried 9s95 and, once, defined that he wanted to complete the path with 9s97. The choices are almost random, but, in general, with brands never achieved by a Brazilian before.

“I’ve always been like that, I always go to the tracks with the thought of improving my marks, with faith in God”, he tells Sheet.

On the afternoon of the last 29th, he repeated his ritual, confident, but without imagining that it would be the day when his prayers would be answered.

Leader of the national ranking this season, Erik Cardoso completed the South American athletics final with a time of 9s97, becoming the first Brazilian in history to run under 10 seconds.

“As soon as I crossed the finish line, I knelt down and thanked. I already knew I had done a good race and would be on the podium”, he says. “When the time was confirmed, I remember that the first person that came to my mind was my grandmother Sebastiana, who died not long ago. I’m sure she was having a party in heaven.”

The athlete feels homesick, but does not speak of his grandmother’s absence with sadness. On the contrary, he believes that her prayers are also a way of keeping in touch with her. Catholic since childhood, he is devoted to Our Lady and Saint Terezinha.

“God, Our Lady and the Catholic Church are the meaning of my life. It is the meaning in which I guide my attitudes, my actions”, he says.

As with religion, the connection with the sport came from the cradle, since the runner’s mother, Denise Barbosa, was a volleyball player.

“At home, I always got encouragement to be an athlete. Not only from my parents but from my grandparents as well. I know they were all very proud.”

Initially, the boy competed in discus and shot put, until he found his true vocation in sprint competitions.

As a young man, he won the gold medal in the 75 m event. More recently, in 2021, he began to show signs of greater maturity, consolidating himself as the second fastest man in Brazil during the Brazilian Under-23 Championship. With a time of 10s01, he broke the South American record in the category.

The time was the second best result of Brazilian athletics in the 100 m. Before that, the fastest in the country in the race was Robson Caetano, then owner of the national and South American record.

Bronze at the Seoul Olympic Games, in 1988, and at the Atlanta Games, in 1996, the carioca obtained his best time in the 1988 Ibero-American Championship, with exactly 10s.

It took 35 years for someone to surpass or equal him in official marks (with wind less than +2.0 m/s). In a single day, he saw two South American athletes achieve this. Erik went silver. Gold went to Issamade Asinga, 18, from Suriname, with 9s89, a new South American record.

Robson was on the podium at the time, and it was he who gave the medal to the São Paulo native. “It hit me there, and I knew that my name was linked to such a significant number for Brazilian athletics”, says Erik.

The feat could be even greater.

Asinga’s anti-doping test showed the presence of cardarine, according to a statement from the Athletics Integrity Unit.

The record holder awaits the result of the counterproof, which may result in suspension and loss of gold. In that case, the Brazilian would inherit the medal and the South American record.

The entity’s decision doesn’t mess with Erik’s head. At the moment, he is in Budapest, where he will compete, starting this Saturday (19), in the Athletics World Cup, his first competition since he became the Brazilian record holder.

The place in the tournament came with the index obtained in São Paulo, which also guaranteed him presence in the Paris Olympic Games, in 2024. The mark required by World Athletics, the international athletics federation, in both events is less than 10s.

A member of the Brazilian 4 x 100 m relay team, for which he made his debut in 2019, the São Paulo native became Brazil’s hope for medals.

He recognizes the expectations he carries now, but he also understands that it is not easy to repeat his best mark in an Olympic edition.

“Too many variables [para conseguir isso]. There is the psychological aspect, there is the physical part. And it has the experience of each athlete. When you get to a big championship, all of that is a deciding factor.”