Pepper wants to keep “high level” in 2027 to reach Los Angeles2028

Nthe beginning of the year, the double Olympic medal was displeased with the new qualification system for the 2028 Games, which requires to be in the “maximum at least five times at the time, in the three World Cups, the European and the World Cup”, with the various distances to score for the ranking of the K1 and not only the Olympic 1,000 meters.

However, the first year of discharge went well for Fernando Pimenta, who just did not win one of the World Cups, in which he was second, but became European and world champion in the 1,000 and 5,000 meters.

“It’s true [that the year 2026 went well], it’s something that has literally come out of my body more and more,” Peppera, silver medal in London2012, K2 1.000, alongside Emanuel Silva, and bronze in K1 in Beijing2020.

However, despite being leader of the world ranking, Pimenta recalls that “the rest of the way is missing” and that it has to “do the same, five competitions at the highest level” to get the clearance for its fifth Olympic Games.

Fernando Pimenta says he has “some notion” that he is one of the biggest Portuguese athletes ever, given the conquest of “14 world titles, 15 European titles, two more medals at the Olympic Games”, besides considering that “there are few athletes to achieve these results so consistently”.

“ Fortunately, the result of a lot of work with my coach and the people around me, who are not many, but the ones that are good. I think we are making a good way, but the road has not yet ended, there are still a lot of things to do and I hope in the coming times to make some more achievements for Portugal”, he said.

The Limiano spoke in a panel on the internationalization of Portuguese sport in Portugal Football Summit in Oeiras, and said that “more than creating Fernandos Pimentas, it is important to encourage people to practice sport” and that “before reaching the top the important thing is to expand the base”, starting at school, in school sport, “but first create a sports culture”.

“ It is to lead people to experience the modalities and to see more and more in the media the modalities. Things are starting to get better. Unfortunately, when I was the champion of Europe in Portugal, there was not a single cover of sports newspaper that came out with a photograph of me and I was the champion of Europe in Portugal. I was two world champions and it happened again, unfortunately, on two consecutive days. This, of course, also affects the sports culture, because Fernando Pimenta, fortunately, already has some visibility, but there are other athletes who do not have so much visibility and then end up being forgotten ", lamented.

The canoeist considered that giving the population “these sports icons and these sports references are easier” to create a different sports culture and not just focused on some modalities.

“ I've been getting a lot of messages from people, from kids to big boys, saying they started playing sports because they were inspired by me. As they are inspired by me, they are inspired by other high-performance athletes. I think that is also part of the game, to be able to give visibility to the modalities so that, then, we can also leverage increasingly the base of sport, whether it be canoeing or any other modality and encourage the younger ones to practice ", said.

Pimenta also left some criticism of the creation of infrastructure without consulting athletes, coaches and federations, giving the example of the construction of a swimming pool of 19 meters, which does not allow official competitions to be held in 25 or 50.

“ I think it is important that we listen and create committees or working groups so that, when investments are made, it is not a person who is literally just on the desk and never made that modality to decide what is best”, he warned.