Images Itinerary Posts

Oscar Schmidt had tears in his eyes after carrying the Olympic Torch through his home town. "It's like adding another Games to my resumé," he said.
National hero

Brazilian basketball legend Oscar Schmidt carries the torch in Natal

In the history of Brazilian basketball, he's the biggest name of all: Oscar Schmidt. By some accounts the player to have scored the most points and played professionally the longest time in the history of the sport, Schmidt is carrying the Olympic Torch today in his home town of Natal in northeastern Brazil.

"Running with the torch in the city where I was born is very emotional. The people here always support me and cheer for me. Carrying the torch is unforgettable for any athlete," he said in the build-up to the big moment.

Schmidt participated in five Olympic Games, from 1980 to 1996. At Seoul 1988, Schmidt and his Brazilian team mates came agonisingly close to winning the quarter-final match against eventual champions the Soviet Union, ending up in fifth place.

"We missed out on gold because of my mistake. I had the ball in my hands to win the game and I missed the shot," Schmidt remembers to this day, modestly declining to point out that he was the main reason that Brazil came so close.

The year before, in the gold medal match of the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, Schmidt scored an astonishing 46 points as Brazil defeated the much-fancied USA national side, overturning a daunting halftime deficit.

In 2015 the Brazilian side also claimed gold at the Pan American Games. Schmidt, the only player who has scored more than 1,000 points in the Olympic Games, thinks the current Brazilian side is well positioned to go all the way at Rio 2016. "It's very likely that our basketball team is going to win a medal," he says.
Nobody else has scored more basketball points than Oscar Schmidt. In the Olympic Games, no-one comes close to his record of 1,093 points. At three Games, he was top scorer. Oscar enjoyed another glory day today, carrying the torch in hometown Natal.
Once his leg of the relay was over, Oscar Schmidt transferred the Olympic flame to another Brazilian sporting hero, Virna Dias, winner of silver medals in beach volleyball at Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000.
After retiring from the indoor sport with two Olympic medals, Virna made a successful switch to beach volleyball with Sandra Pires as her partner. She is now a commentator on television.
The torch has arrived in Natal, the sunny capital of Rio Grande do Norte. Schoolteacher André Calixta carried the torch at the Fort of the Three Kings. Calixta runs a project that has given thousands of children free lessons in karate.