Patricia Mamona

European champion triple-jumper Patricia Mamon has been at the top of her discipline for nearly a decade. As well as winning the medal at the 2016 European Athletics Championships, she has been a finalist at numerous World Championships and represented Portugal at two Olympic Games. At the few meetings that could be held during the 2020 pandemic, she finished in the top three every time.

Mamona was born near Lisbon in 1988 but is of Angolan descent, something she’s rightly proud of. She first appeared on the world athletics scene aged 18, when she finished fourth at the 2006 World Junior Championships in China. Later that year, she returned to China for the Lusophony Games (a competition between Portuguese-speaking nations), winning bronze in the triple jump and long jump. At the next Lusophony Games, in 2009, she won her first major gold medal for the triple jump (and narrowly missed out on bronze in the 100m hurdles). In 2011, she represented Portugal at the World University Games, one of the biggest athletics tournaments in the world, and won silver.

In 2012, Mamona burst onto the senior world stage with a silver medal at the European Championships in Finland and an appearance at her first Olympic Games. The impressive results continued to pile up, and her peerless dedication paid off in 2016 when she finally became European Champion. The following year, she took silver at the European Indoor Championships and made a top-ten finish at the World Championships. Her next ambition is to make the podium at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.