Jefferson Pérez

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Medal record
Pérez at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics.
Men’s Athletics
Competitor for  Ecuador
Olympic Games
Gold	1996 Atlanta	20 km walk
World Championships
Gold	2003 Paris	20 km walk
Gold	2005 Helsinki	20 km walk
Gold	2007 Osaka	20 km walk
Silver	1999 Seville	20 km walk

Jefferson Leonardo Pérez Quezada (born July 1, 1974 in Cuenca) is an Ecuadorian track and field athlete. He has specialised in 20 km race walk.

His medal at the 1996 Olympics was the first Olympic medal ever for Ecuador.

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.

Pérez also had 4th place finishes in the 20 km walk at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

[edit] 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.

[edit] The beginnings

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 and London as a sport ambassador.

Initially he participated in distance competitions of five kilometres. 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.

[edit] Individual Achievements

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 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. In France he broke the world record and he received a financial bonus.

[edit] External links

• Official Homepage
• Photos about his technique
• The sacrifice of a friend pays dividend for Perez and Ecuador - article on IAAF.org

Records
Preceded by Francisco Javier Fernández	Men's 20km Walk World Record Holder August 23, 2003 – 2007-09-29	Succeeded by Vladimir Kanaykin
Sporting positions
Preceded by Li Zewen	Men's IAAF World Race Walking Cup Winner 1997	Succeeded by Bernardo Segura
Preceded by Bernardo Segura	Men's IAAF World Race Walking Cup Winner 2002 – 2004	Succeeded by Francisco Javier Fernández