Iván Pedroso

Iván Lázaro Pedroso Soler (Spanish pronunciation: [iˈβam peˈðɾoso]; born 17 December 1972) is a retired Cuban athlete, who specialized in the long jump, and is the current coach of Yulimar Rojas and Jordan Díaz.

Career

Pedroso was born in Havana, Cuba. In July 1990, aged just 17, Pedroso jumped more than 8 metres for the first time. Facing tough competition from Carl Lewis, Mike Powell and others, he still won numerous gold medals in international competitions in the early nineties. He almost never finished in less than first place. When Powell and Lewis retired, Pedroso became the dominant athlete, winning numerous indoor and outdoor World Championships. In fact he won all major championships from 1997 to 2001, including an Olympic gold medal in Sydney.

On 29 July 1995, Iván Pedroso jumped 8.96 metres at high altitude in Sestriere. The wind reading was +1.2 metres per second, therefore the jump would have been eligible for records and top lists, beating Mike Powell's existing world record by one centimetre. However, the Italian Athletics Federation did not forward the result to the IAAF for ratification, since the wind reading was declared invalid, because a person stood in front of the anemometer, probably intercepting the correct wind measurement.

Despite his great success in the World Championships, due to injuries, he did not make a great impact on the Olympic Games like former rival Carl Lewis. He did finish fourth at the age of 19 in Barcelona 1992, but in Atlanta 1996 he had injury troubles and could only finish 12th in the final. At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Pedroso spectacularly won the gold medal with his final attempt. In a tough contest in Athens 2004, he finished 7th. Pedroso has not entered in any major championships since, although he still had several jumps over 8 metres.