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Press release
Pedro ready to make up for lost time at debut Olympics
Pedro (left) and Evandro are aiming for further success at Rio 2016
Lausanne, Switzerland, May 4, 2016 – For Pedro Salgado it is a case of third time lucky when it comes to the Olympic Games.
The Brazilian missed out on the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games, but after a successful two seasons alongside Evandro Goncalves he is now counting down the days until he makes his Olympic bow in front of his hometown crowd at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.
“I’ve fought for this for so long,†he said. “Twice I’ve come close to qualifying for the Olympics, but didn’t make it, so I was very happy when Evandro and I finished second on the World Tour and got our spot.
“It was exactly what I was expecting from my life, to have this kind of pressure, to be able to play an Olympics, to be playing good and at home.â€
He may only be 30, so it seems remarkable that Pedro has been part of the beach volleyball world since he and Ian Borges won the 2002 U19 FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships. A year later he underlined his potential by winning the U21 version alongside Pedro Cunha.
Rio native
Pedro made his FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour debut at the Stare Jablonki Open in 2005, but a year later he was still eligible for the U21 World Championships, which he won with Bruno Schmidt.
The Rio-native enjoyed two years with Harley Silva, but after they won the World Tour title in 2008 they went their separate ways. Pedro played with a variety of partners before reuniting with Bruno in 2013 and they enjoyed a stellar year in which they finished second to Latvia’s Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins in a World Tour race that went to the final tournament.
“If I could, I would do it differently especially in 2008,†Pedro said. “I didn’t qualify with Harley, but we won the World Tour. There was no reason to split, but we split and that is one of the most stupid decisions of my life.â€
After Bruno teamed up with Alison Cerutti, Pedro played with his childhood hero Emanuel Rego and then won the 2014 Stare Jablonki Grand Slam in his first tournament alongside Alvaro Filho. At the end of the year he paired up with Evandro for a Brazil Tour tournament which they won and the pair haven’t looked back since.
In 2015 they won bronze at the Netherlands FIVB Beach Volleyball 2015 World Championship and gold at the Stavanger Major Series event, both of which helped the duo reach their first Olympics. So far in 2016 they won silver at the Rio Grand Slam and Maceio Open.
“Evandro is a guy who I like so much and we have such a good connection,†Pedro said. “I like just having lunch together or little things like watching a movie together in our room.
“I believed in him and called him to come and play with me and believed our team would work well together. I thought it would be hard because we are two blockers, but I believed that our chemistry would be bigger than the difficulties we would face.â€
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