Thiago Braz da Silva strained every sinew in breaking the Olympic pole vault record on Monday night, but from inside the boisterously partisan stadium it felt very much as though his achievement also owed a debt of gratitude to the DJ.
Throughout a thrilling, rain-interrupted night the competitions – 110m hurdles, 800m, 400m, discus and pole vault – were interspersed and sometimes accompanied by a medley of western rock and pop classics.
The music was broadcast to entertain the crowd and fill in the audio space between starting pistols, finishing applause and announcements of lineups, qualifiers, winners and weather breaks. But just once – when it counted most – a single tune also appeared to inspire an athlete.
It was almost the end of the night, way beyond the scheduled finished time when Silva prepared for his second attempt at 6.03m.
There seemed little chance the 22-year-old would make it. The height was 10cm more than he had ever managed. His first attempt was a half-hearted flop. No Brazilian man had won an athletics gold since 1984. The psychological advantage seemed to be entirely with his French rival, the defending Olympic champion, Renaud Lavillenie, who had vaulted flawlessly at lower heights.
But the crowd – although filling fewer than half the seats – were raucously behind the home athlete, and so it seemed was whoever was in charge of the playlist. For the first time of the night, a Brazilian tune – the 1969 hit País Tropical (Tropical Country) by Jorge Ben – echoed across the runaway.
The song – as recognisable an anthem to Brazilians as We are the Champions is to Brits – immediately changed the mood in the stadium, first driving the already passionate support to a new level of intensity in their cries of “Thi-a-go, Thi-a-go”, and then lifting Silva to a level few previously believed he was capable of. As he tumbled over with the bar still intact, the stadium erupted.
No doubt there were other more important factors behind his victory: Silva is coached by the Ukrainian Vitaly Petrov, who masterminded the careers of champions Sergey Bubka and Yelena Isinbayeva.
The crowd also played a negative role, booing and barracking his opponents as if they were at a football match. This behaviour clearly upset Lavillenie who made a thumbs-down motion before his final, futile attempt.
That passion has not always helped Brazilian sportsmen. As the men’s football team showed at the last World Cup, playing at home can be more of a curse than an advantage. The fear of failing in front of fickle domestic crowds may also be a factor in the host nation’s poor first week of the Olympics, the worst in decades by a host.
Silva, however, was unencumbered by expectations. Because he was not among the favourites for the pole vault, many in the audience were surprised and satisfied when he was guaranteed a medal. Anything after that was a bonus.
The gold medal winner acknowledged the part played by the audience. “Before the event, I thought competing at home would mean the Brazilian fans would put pressure on me. But they only supported me and that helped me a lot,” he told a local TV station.
But he said it was in danger of going too far. “The crowd was cheering me too much. I had to fix my mind on my technique and forget the people.”
With that, the gold medalist ran off on a victory parade, draped in the Brazilian flag, waving to an adoring crowd while the stadium sound system once again blasted out Jorge Ben’s País Tropical.
An old melody, a new hero and an unexpected triumph – the host nation finally got the feelgood moment it has been waiting for.
