Marco Fortes (born 26 September 1982) is a male shot putter from Portugal. His personal best throw is 21.02 meters – Portuguese record – was achieved at the 2012 European Cup Winter Throwing in Bar, Montenegro, where he won the gold medal.

Career

Fortes was born in

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 ...

to Mozambican immigrants. At the age of 25, he was the first Portuguese shot putter to participate in the Olympics. In Beijing 2008, after beating his personal (and national) record (18.05) he jokingly stated "I seem to perform better in the afternoon. Apparently I would do better to remain in bed on mornings." In response, he was expelled from the Olympic committee. This spawned controversy, especially when

Nelson Évora Nelson Évora GCIH (born 20 April 1984) is an Ivory Coast-born Portuguese track and field athlete who specializes in the triple jump. Évora is a former outdoor Olympic, World, and European triple jump champion. He has also won a European i ...

, who was the only Portuguese athlete to earn olympic gold that year, protested against his expulsion upon his victory speech on national TV. Marco Fortes carried on beating his personal (and national) records, arriving at 20.52 in 2009, 20.89 in 2011, and 21,02 in 2012. In his second participation in the Olympics, in London 2012, he rose from his 2008 classification of 38th place to 15th place.

Achievements

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fortes, Marco 1982 births Living people Athletes from Lisbon Portuguese male shot putters Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Olympic athletes for Portugal S.L. Benfica athletes Portuguese people of Mozambican descent Black Portuguese sportspeople