2009 Summer Universiade, Belgrade: triple jump gold (17.22m); 2011 Summer Universiade, Shenzhen: triple jump gold (17.31m).

For many athletes, competing at a Summer World University Games is a precursor to world or Olympic success. 

Nelson Évora did things the other way round – by the time he earned the first of his two Universiade triple jump titles he was already the world and Olympic champion.

Évora, who was born in the Ivory Coast, moved to Portugal when he was five and represented his adopted country aged 20 at the Athens 2004 Olympics, although he failed to qualify for the final.

However, he had already proven himself as an athlete who knew how to win, having taken the long jump gold with 7.49 metres at the 2001 European Youth Olympic Festival and the European junior long jump title two years afterwards.

In 2006, maintaining his competitive challenge in both long and triple jump, he finished sixth in the former and fourth in the latter at the European Athletics Championships. 

The following year, he recorded his long jump personal best of 8.10m in winning the European Cup First League event, adding the triple jump title for good measure.

That was an ideal warm-up for his big breakthrough at the World Athletics Championships in Osaka, where he won gold with a national record of 17.74m.

After he had won triple jump bronze at the 2008 World Indoor Championships, his career reached its peak as he took the Olympic title in Beijing with an effort of 17.67m, ahead of Britain's Phillips Idowu on 17.62m.

That competitive edge proved as cutting as one might have expected when the 25-year-old earned his first Universiade gold in the Serbian capital of Belgrade with a best of 17.22m.

Two years later at Shenzhen in China, Évora retained his title with an effort of 17.31m, well clear of his nearest challenger, Ukraine's Viktor Kuznyetsov who reached 16.89m.

Further triple jump golds lay ahead of the then 27-year-old as he won the European indoor title in Prague in 2015 and retained it in Belgrade two years later.

The following year, at a packed Olympic Stadium in Berlin, the 34-year-old phenomenon earned an extraordinary gold with a best of 17.10m.

Last year he added another European indoor medal, this time silver, in Glasgow before competing in his seventh World Championships in Doha. 

His Olympic ambitions remain alive...