Career
Edival's father, an amateur football athlete, took his son to football school when he was five years old. Edival discovered taekwondo two years later, fell in love with the South Korean fight and changed sports. At 12 years old, Edival was already starting to win Brazilian Championships. [6]
At the 2014 World Juniors Taekwondo Championships, at the age of 16, Edival became junior world champion, obtaining the gold medal. [7] [8]
At the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics, at the age of 16, he won a gold medal in the 63 kg category, [9] [10]
At the 2016 Pan American Taekwondo Championships, Edival won the silver medal in the 68 kg category. [11]
Debuting in the world championships at number 38 in the world rankings, Edival participated in the 2017 World Taekwondo Championships. He reached the round of 16, where he had to face the Korean Lee Dae-hoon, holder of two Olympic medals and two-time champion world, and was eliminated. The Korean won his third world championship in this tournament. [12]
At the 2018 Pan American Taekwondo Championships, Edival won the gold medal in the 68 kg category, becoming champion of the competition for the first time. [13] [14]
At the 2019 World Taekwondo Championships, Edival repeated his 2017 campaign, reaching the round of 16. [15]
In 2019, at 21 years old, Edival obtained his greatest title when he became champion of the 2019 Pan American Games. He won the gold medal at the 68 kg category, defeating Bernardo Pié, from the Dominican Republic, in the final, in an exciting and comeback fight by 17 to 14. Since 2007, the country has not won a gold medal in the sport at the Pan American Games. [16] [17] [18]
Edival was called up for the pre-Olympics in March 2020. Each country can send only two athletes per gender to the pre-Olympics, despite taekwondo having four categories at the Olympics. The Brazilian Taekwondo Confederation called up Ícaro Miguel (up to 80kg) and Edival Pontes (up to 68kg). Ícaro and Edival closed the world Olympic classification ranking in ninth place in their respective categories. [19]
At the 2020 Summer Olympics, Edival, making his Olympic debut, ended up losing on his debut to Turkish Hakan Recber 25-18, in the round of 16 of the under-68kg category. With the result, he had to wait for the outcome of the Turk's campaign to find out if he could compete in the repechage and fight for bronze. If he reached the final, the Brazilian could once again have a chance at a medal. But that didn't happen. Hakan fell in the quarterfinals to Britain's Bradly Sinden. [20]
At the 2022 Pan American Taekwondo Championships, Edival won the gold medal in the 74 kg category, becoming champion of the competition for the second time. [21] [22]
At the 2022 South American Games, he won a silver medal in the 68 kg category. [23]
At the 2022 World Taekwondo Championships, Edival became world runner-up, obtaining silver in the under-74 kg category. At 25 years old, it was his first medal in adult World Championships. Edival sought to be the second Brazilian to win a world title in taekwondo, equaling Natália Falavigna, champion in 2005. [24] [25] [26]
At the 2023 Pan American Games, the men's team, formed by Edival Pontes, Maicon Andrade and Paulo Melo, won an unprecedented gold medal for the country, after a thrilling comeback over Cuba in the semifinals, with a 76-60 triumph, and a crushing victory over Chile 48 to 16, where the Brazilian team was impressive in front of the noisy fans who attended the Centro de Deportes de Contacto. [27]
In the 2024 Summer Olympics, Pontes lost his first match to Zaid Kareem, but was allowed into the repechage once Kareem reached the final. After winning a rematch against Hakan Recber, he got to the bronze medal match opposite Javier Pérez Polo, and with his win became the third Brazilian with a taekwondo medal after Natália Falavigna and Maicon de Andrade. [28]
