Sao Paulo, Brazil (AP) _ Joao Carlos de Oliveira, who held the world triple jump
record for a decade and later lost a leg in an accident, died late Saturday. He was 45.
Oliveira died at the Beneficencia Portugesa Hospital in Sao Paulo where he was admitted a month ago with lung and liver ailments, hospital spokesman Manuel Veras said Sunday.
The Brazilian jumper set the world record with a jump of 17.89 meters (58 feet, 8 1-4 inches) in the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico, a mark that stood for 10 years. He also won bronze medals in the 1976 and 1980 Olympics, and
Brazilians dubbed him ``Joao do Pulo'' - Portuguese for ``Jumping John.''
``He continues to be for me one of the 10 best athletes the world has seen,'' said Oliveira's former trainer, Pedro do Toledo, in a televised interview. ``He could have done much more if he had been born at a different time, in a different country...''
In 1981, Oliveira's car was hit head-on by a drunk driver going the wrong way at night on an interstate highway. Oliveira was seriously injured, and doctors amputated his right leg.
Despite his difficulties, he had wanted to compete in the ParaOlympics in Sydney next year ``if not to win, to set an example'', Toledo said.
Brazil's sports minister Rafael Greca said Oliveira ``enters the gallery of Brazilian Olympic heroes'' and should be remembered for his conquests, not for the period in which his life ``fell down''.
On Sunday, mourners paid tribute to Oliveira whose body was taken to the Legislative Assembly building in Sao Paulo and draped in a Brazilian flag.
He was to be buried Monday in his home town of Pindamonhangaba, some 150 kilometers (90 miles) northeast of Sao Paulo.
