Maria Fernanda Moreira Ribeiro, GCIH (; born 23 June 1969), is a

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance running comes two d ...

born in

Penafiel Penafiel ( or () is a municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the northern Portuguese district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion, the population was 72,265 in 2011, in an area of . History The region ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

. The pinnacle of her career was at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

when she won the women's

10000 m The 10,000 metres or the 10,000-metre run is a common long-distance track running event. The event is part of the athletics programme at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships, and is common at championship level events. The rac ...

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

, establishing a new

Olympic record Olympic records are the best performances in a specific event in that event's history in either the Summer Olympic Games or the Winter Olympic Games, including: * Archery (list) * Alpine skiing (records recognized only by FIS) * Athletics (list) ...

of 31:01.63. Her victory gave Portugal its third

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...

gold medal.

Biography

Ribeiro started running with Grupo Desportivo do Kolossal, before joining

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Port ...

, which she represented from 1982-1992. She returned to FC Porto after two years at Maratona Clube da Maia. Along with her sports career, she has worked at her town hall as a sports adviser to the mayor. She holds Portugal's record for most

Olympic medals An Olympic medal is awarded to successful competitors at one of the Olympic Games. There are three classes of medal to be won: gold, silver, and bronze, awarded to first, second, and third place, respectively. The granting of awards is lai ...

. She has the record for most athletic medals won in Portugal, having participated in five summer Olympics (

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the Capital city, capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the North Korea, Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea ...

1988,

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

1992,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

1996,

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

2000, and

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

2004) and many more European and

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

. Ribeiro has continued running in her later years and won third place at the 2010

Lisbon Half Marathon EDP Lisbon Half Marathon is an annual international half marathon competition which is contested every March in Lisbon, Portugal. It carries IAAF Gold Label Road Race status. The men's course record of 57:31 was set by Jacob Kiplimo in 2021, whic ...

, when she was 40 years old. She helped the Portuguese women's team win the title at the European Cup 10000 m in June 2010, rounding out the country's top runners with a seventh-place finish.

Atlanta Olympic 10000 m gold medal, 1996

On 2 August 1996 Ribeiro ran in the finals of the Olympic women's 10000 m run. At the beginning of the last lap, Ribeiro was close behind the Chinese athlete

Wang Junxia Wang Junxia (; born January 19, 1973) is a Chinese former long-distance runner who is the current world record holder at 3,000 meters. She also held the world record for the 10,000 meters for 23 years, between 1993 and 2016. Her best years lay b ...

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

holder and

5000 m The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

Olympic champion. On the backstretch, Wang opened up as much as a 10-metre gap. In the last 200 meters accelerated, Ribeiro passed her opponent on the inside just as she entered the final straightaway. Wang had no answer. At the end of the race, Fernanda said: :I had promised to fight until my very limits, I only missed finishing on my knees. From the third kilometer I started feeling pain on the Achilles' tendon, managed to withstand, suffered, but I, for the dream of becoming Olympic champion, was ready to run until... death knocked me over! I just got a bit scared when I saw Wang, isolating 400 m to the finish line. But that instant I wasn't defeated yet... it was when I remembered my promise to go to Fatima on foot. In November 1996, she made a

pilgrimage A pilgrimage is a journey, often into an unknown or foreign place, where a person goes in search of new or expanded meaning about their self, others, nature, or a higher good, through the experience. It can lead to a personal transformation, aft ...

to Fátima as promised to thank

Our Lady of Fátima Our Lady of Fátima ( pt, Nossa Senhora de Fátima, ); formally known as Our Lady of the Holy Rosary of Fátima) is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus, based on the Marian apparitions reported in 1917 by three shepherd children at the ...

for her incredible victory.

Achievements and Results

Olympic Games

:13th 3000 m, 1988 Seoul, KOR :9th 3000 m, 1992 Barcelona, SPA :1st 10000 m, 1996 Atlanta, USA :3rd 10000 m, 2000 Sydney, AUS :DNF 10000m, 2004 Athens, GRE

World Championships

:4th 3000 m, 1986 Athens, GRE (junior) :24th 3000 m, 1987 Rome, ITA :2nd 3000 m, 1988 Sudbury, CAN (junior) :22nd 3000 m, 1991 Tokyo, JAP :10th 10000 m, 1993 Stuttgart, GER :1st 10000 m, 1995 Gothenburg, SWE :2nd 5000 m, 1995 Gothenburg, SWE :3rd 3000 m, 1997 Paris, FRA (indoor) :2nd 10000 m, 1997 Athens, GRE :3rd 5000 m, 1997 Athens, GRE

World Cup

:2nd 10000 m, 1994 London, ENG

European Championships

:25th 3000 m, 1986 Sttutgart, GER :1st 3000 m, 1987 Birmingham, ENG (junior) :19th 3000 m, 1990 Split, YUG :1st 3000 m, 1994 Paris, FRA (indoor) :1st 10000 m, 1994 Helsinki, FIN :1st 3000 m, 1996 Stockholm, SWE (indoor) :2nd 3000 m, 1998 Valencia, SPA (indoor) :2nd 10000 m, 1998 Budapest, HUN

Road Relay Team Championships

:1st, 1992 Funchal, POR

World Cross Country Championships

:10th Long Race, 1994 Budapest, HUN :1st Long Race, 1994 Budapest, HUN (Team) :10th Short Race, 2000 Vilamoura, POR :1st Short Race, 2000 Vilamoura, POR (Team)

European Cross Country Championships

:6th 4,5 km, 1994 Alnwick, ENG :3rd 4,5 km, 1994 Alnwick, ENG (Team) :4th 5,6 km, 1998 Ferrara, ITA :1st 5,6 km, 1998 Ferrara, ITA (Team) :15th 5,64 km, 2004 Heringsdorf, GER :1st 5,64 km, 2004 Heringsdorf, GER (Team) :3rd 8,2 km, 2007 Toro, SPA (Team)

European 10000 Meters Challenge

:1st 10000 m, 1998 Lisbon, POR :1st 10000 m, 1998 Lisbon, POR (Team) :2nd 10000 m, 2002 Camaiore, ITA :1st 10000 m, 2002 Camaiore, ITA (Team) :1st 10000 m, 2003 Athens, GRE :1st 10000 m, 2003 Athens, GRE (Team) :3rd 10000 m, 2004 Maribor, SLO :2nd 10000 m, 2004 Maribor, SLO (Team)

European Cup 10000 Meters

:2nd 10000 m, 2005 Barakaldo, SPA :1st 10000 m, 2005 Barakaldo, SPA (Team) :6th 10000 m, 2009 Ribeira Brava, POR :1st 10000 m, 2009 Ribeira Brava, POR (Team) :7th 10000 m, 2010 Marseille, FRA :1st 10000 m, 2010 Marseille, FRA (Team)

Lusophony Games

:2nd Half Marathon, 2006 Macau, CHN :1st 10 km road, 2009 Lisbon, POR

Ibero-American Championships

:3rd 3000 m, 1990 Manaus, BRA :1st 5000 m, 2000 Rio de Janeiro, BRA :1st 5000 m, 2004 Huelva, SPA

Iberian 10000 Meters Championships

:1st 10000 m, 1992 Maia, POR

Medal Count

:40 International Medals (23 Gold, 10 Silver, 7 Bronze) :26 International Medals - Individual (12 Gold, 9 Silver, 5 Bronze) :14 International Medals - Team (11 Gold, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze)

Medals By Year

:1987 - 1 :1988 - 1 :1990 - 1 :1992 - 2 :1994 - 5 :1995 - 2 :1996 - 2 :1997 - 3 :1998 - 5 :2000 - 3 :2002 - 2 :2003 - 2 :2004 - 4 :2005 - 2 :2006 - 1 :2007 - 1 :2009 - 2 :2010 - 1

Most International Medals - Women

:62 Caterine Ibargüen, COL :50 Debbie Ferguson-McKenzie, BAH :43 Veronica Campbell-Brown, JAM :42 Merlene Ottey, JAM :40 Fernanda Ribeiro, POR :37 Maria de Lurdes Mutola, MOZ :32 Chandra Sturrup, BAH

Personal bests

*2000 m outdoor – 5:37.88 (Lisbon, 1996) *2000 m indoor – 5:37.34 (Valencia, 1996) *3000 m indoor – 8:39.49 (Stockholm, 1996) *5000 m outdoor – 14:36.45 (Hechtel, 1995) *5000 m indoor – 15:06.52 (Moscow, 1996) *10000 m – 30:22.88 (Sydney, 2000) *10000 m Olympic – 31:01.63 (Atlanta, 1996 – Olympic record)

References

External links

*http://www.atletas.net
Fernanda Ribeiro
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ribeiro, Fernanda 1969 births Living people People from Penafiel Portuguese female long-distance runners Portuguese female marathon runners Athletes (track and field) at the 1988 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1992 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes of Portugal Olympic gold medalists for Portugal Olympic bronze medalists for Portugal Golden Globes (Portugal) winners World Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists in athletics (track and field) Olympic bronze medalists in athletics (track and field) Goodwill Games medalists in athletics World Athletics Championships winners Competitors at the 1994 Goodwill Games Sportspeople from Porto District