Nélio Moura’s successful sports career won him the Brazilian Olympic Committee’s prize for best coach in individual sports. The awards ceremony took place during the Brazilian Olympic Awards, held on 16 December at the Museum  of Modern Art in Rio de Janeiro.

At the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, athletes trained by Moura dominated the long jump, winning two gold medals. The highlight for Brazil was the gold medal won by Maurren Maggi. Irving Saladino, a Panamanian athlete trained by Moura for four years in Brazil, won the first gold medal in the history of his country.

In 1992, Moura began training Maggi, who was 16 years old at the time. Moura has been a Brazilian national coach since 1990, and on his resume, the following competitions stand out: the Olympic Games (Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008); the Pan American Games (including the Youth and Under-23 Games); world championships; indoor world championships; and world youth championships. Moura has published more than 20 technical and scientific articles in specialist magazines, and has a Master’s degree in Human Performance.

What does it mean to be the coach of the first woman to win a gold medal in Brazilian track and field?

Maurren’s victory in Beijing was spectacular and also represented the high point of my career and that of my wife Tânia. Its uniqueness, however, wasn’t the most important thing for me. We had absolutely concrete and realistic goals. Seeing her performing at her best, at the most important moment of her sporting life, was indescribable.

What's it like to be named the Individual Sports Coach of the Year, the first time the prize has been given at the Brazilian Olympic Awards?

I’m very content to have had the honor of representing coaches in individual sports in the first year that this award was separated into individual and team coaching.” Normally, due to the characteristics of sport, collective sport coaches have a higher profile than ours. This initiative by COB can help to show the specific characteristics of the work done by individual coaches.

As a track and field coach, what is your assessment of the organization of the Rio 2007 Pan American Games?

The organization of the Rio 2007 Pan American Games was impeccable, from my point of view. Athletes and coaches had top-class facilities, which helped them strive for optimal performance.

What suggestions would you make so that the holding of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro stimulates the growth of sport in Brazil and in South America?

There’s still time to begin a major project to develop Olympic sport in Brazil and Latin America, which can bear fruit in 2016, although the greater results will come as of 2020. If Rio succeeds in its bid, this will serve as an engine to drive this project, which would enable sustainable development of sport in the region. The main thing is not to forget that it’s not enough to have world-class organization to prepare and stage the event: investment in training and preparing Olympic teams, and the effective use of venues after the Games, are factors that will determine the success of this initiative.

What do you expect for the Rio 2016 bid?

Going back to what I said earlier, I expect that we will demonstrate our capacity to host major events, but also to prepare sufficiently for them, and will build our capacity to use the Olympic venues to ensure the continued development of sport in Brazil.

How does a young athlete become interested in jumping events?

Role models – idols – are very important in winning over new athletes to the sport. Today, we have the greatest idol we could desire: a charismatic, victorious, determined  person, who has led an extraordinary and exemplary life, and who is genuinely interested in helping her medals “multiply.”

You are also coach for the Panamanian athlete Irving Saladino, who won his country’s first gold medal with a jump of 8.34m. What are the challenges in training a foreign athlete, and what was the sensation when you saw him win?

Irving is very similar to Brazilian athletes and, having lived in Brazil for more than four years, he was already completely adapted to life here. I also think that I know him as well as the other athletes I coach, so his nationality doesn’t impose any serious problems. The challenge was similar to that of Maurren: how to make real the possibility of winning a medal. It was only after the competition, seeing the celebrations in Panama via the internet that the enormity of his victory hit home.

What attributes are required to be a good track and field coach?

There is a series of prerequisites, but basically, if you want to be a good professional, you have to get the right training, and it has to be continual. You can’t stop studying. You need to have a grasp of science, and apply the best information available in your day-to-day work. There’s also a series of personal attributes that make up the “art” of the coach. If you can get a good balance between the arts and science, that helps.

How can sport serve as a tool for social inclusion?

I have always believed that sport educates and has a great power to transform. There are countless people whose lives were completely changed by sport, and most of these cases are anonymous. These are people who had the opportunity to study, who developed ethics and values, who socialized – in other words, who became real citizens and members of the community – through sport.