Ronald Julião

Born in Caieiras in Brazil's Sao Paulo state, Ronald Julião attended Sebastião de Oliveira Gusmão school and began training in the shot put from the age of thirteen. He won the Ibirapuera schools meet in 1999 and an athletics coach, Fatima Aparecida Germano, offered to train him as a result. She taught him in the shot put and also added the discus throw event to his oeuvre.^[2] In his first major regional competition he took third place in the shot put at the 2002 South American Youth Championships.^[3] He came sixth in the shot at the 2003 South American Junior Championships in Athletics, but showed progression in the discus by taking second place with a throw of 56.36 m.^[4] He signed up with the BM&F Bovespa club in 2005 and began to establish himself in the senior ranks that year.^[2]

He won his first national discus title in 2005 and took the bronze medal in the event at the 2005 South American Championships in Athletics, also finishing sixth in the shot put.^[5] The following year he was runner-up to Argentine athletes twice in the discus. At the 2006 South American Championships in Athletics he finished behind Jorge Balliengo,^[6] then at the 2006 South American Under-23 Championships in Athletics he was beaten by Germán Lauro.^[7] Outside of the region, he was eighth in the shot put and fourth in the discus at the 2006 Ibero-American Championships in Athletics.^[8] In Macau he won his first international shot put medal, taking the bronze at the 2006 Lusophony Games.

In the 2007 season Julião improved his personal bests to 59.75 m for the discus and 17.81 m for the shot put.^[9] He came fifth at the 2007 South American Championships in Athletics with his shot put effort and was runner-up to Lauro in the discus competition.^[10] He was further down the rankings at the 2007 Pan American Games held in Rio de Janeiro, taking tenth place in the shot and sixth in the discus. He cleared eighteen metres in the shot put for the first time in May 2008, throwing 18.12 m at the South American GP meet in Uberlândia. He won both throwing national titles at the Brazilian Championships, but did not qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.^[2] His sole international competition that year was the Ibero-American Championships, where he managed third in the discus.^[8]

Julião threw a shot put best of 18.19 m to take the silver medal at the 2009 South American Championships in Athletics – a performance that was better than that in his principal event, as he came third in the discus.^[11][12] Repeating his feat from three years previously, he came third in the shot at the 2009 Lusophony Games.^[13]

He improved significantly as an athlete in the 2010 season. Under the advice of José Luis Martínez, a Spanish throwing coach, he had changed the focus of his training, moving away from building strength and towards technique-based methods.^[14] Clearing sixty metres in the discus for the first time, he opened the year with a Brazilian record of 60.40 m, beating José Araujo de Souza's mark which has stood since 1990. He broke the record three more times that year, culminating in a throw of 63.09 m at the Meeting de Atletismo Madrid. He also became the national indoor record holder in the shot put with a throw of 17.51 m. There were no major international competitions for Julião that year, but he placed fifth in the shot and sixth in the discus at the 2010 Ibero-American Championships.^[2] He improved his indoor shot put record to 17.94 m at the start of 2011. He was fourth in that event at the 2011 South American Championships in Athletics, but performed well in the discus by taking his first ever continental gold medal with a Championship record throw of 62.72 m.^[14] Still studying at university, his form peaked for the 2011 Summer Universiade held in Shenzhen. He broke the outdoor national record in the shot put with a throw of 18.78 m (coming ninth) and improved his discus mark to 63.30 m to leave the competition with the bronze medal.^[15][16] His last appearance for Brazil that year came at the 2011 Pan American Games, where he won another discus bronze medal.^[17]

Julião threw 65.41 m at the Grande Premio Brasil Caixa de Atletismo in May 2012, lifting him into second place on the all-time South American discus rankings behind Jorge Balliengo.^[18]

• Shot put: 18.78 m – Shenzhen, 16 August 2011
• Discus throw: 65.55 m – La Jolla, California, 27 April 2013

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Event	Notes
Representing  Brazil
2002	South American Youth Championships	Asunción, Paraguay	3rd	Shot put (5 kg)	16.80 m
2003	South American Junior Championships	Guayaquil, Ecuador	2nd	Discus throw (1.75 kg)	56.36 m
	Pan American Junior Championships	Bridgetown, Barbados	11th	Shot put (6 kg)	16.29 m
			4th	Discus throw (1.75 kg)	54.93 m
2005	South American Championships	Cali, Colombia	6th	Shot put	16.97 m
			4th	Discus throw	56.51 m
2006	Ibero-American Championships	Ponce, Puerto Rico	8th	Shot put	16.89 m
			3rd*	Discus throw	52.36 m
	South American Championships	Tunja, Colombia	7th**	Shot put	15.95 m
			2nd	Discus throw	57.02 m
	Lusophony Games	Macau	3rd	Shot put	16.10 m
	South American U23 Championships / South American Games	Buenos Aires, Argentina	2nd	Discus throw	55.13 m
2007	South American Championships	São Paulo, Brazil	5th	Shot put	17.81 m
			2nd	Discus throw	56.53 m
	Pan American Games	Rio de Janeiro	10th	Shot put	17.31 m
			6th	Discus throw	54.36 m
2008	Ibero-American Championships	Iquique, Chile	6th	Shot put	17.64 m
			3rd	Discus throw	56.77 m
2009	South American Championships	Lima, Peru	2nd	Shot put	18.19 m
			3rd	Discus throw	54.97 m
	Lusophony Games	Lisbon, Portugal	3rd	Shot put	17.63 m
2010	Ibero-American Championships	San Fernando, Spain	6th	Shot put	18.57 m
			5th	Discus throw	57.91 m
2011	South American Championships	Buenos Aires, Argentina	4th	Shot put	17.88 m
			1st	Discus throw	62.72 m
	Universiade	Shenzhen, China	9th	Shot put	18.78 m (NR)
			3rd	Discus throw	63.30 m (NR)
	Pan American Games	Guadalajara, Mexico	9th	Shot put	17.94 m
			3rd	Discus throw	61.70 m
2012	Ibero-American Championships	Barquisimeto, Venezuela	2nd	Discus throw	61.67 m
	Olympic Games	London, United Kingdom	41st (q)	Discus throw	56.20 m
2013	Universiade	Kazan, Russia	11th	Shot put	17.47 m
			1st	Discus throw	63.54 m
	World Championships	Moscow, Russia	22nd (q)	Discus throw	59.36 m
2014	South American Games	Santiago, Chile	2nd	Discus throw	59.12 m
	Ibero-American Championships	São Paulo, Brazil	3rd	Discus throw	59.75 m
	Pan American Sports Festival	Mexico City, Mexico	3rd	Discus	59.40m A
2015	South American Championships	Lima, Peru	2nd	Discus throw	59.80 m
	Pan American Games	Toronto, Canada	2nd	Discus throw	64.65 m
	World Championships	Beijing, China	21st (q)	Discus throw	61.02 m
2016	Ibero-American Championships	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	1st	Discus throw	59.56 m
2017	South American Championships	Asunción, Paraguay	4th	Discus throw	55.89 m

^*: At the 2006 Ibero-American Championships, Ronald Julião as initially 4th, but Argentinian Marcelo Pugliese was disqualified because of doping violations.
^**: Competing out of competition.

National titles

• Discus throw: 2005 to 2015 (11)
• Shot put: 2008 to 2011 (4)

• Ronald Julião at World Athletics
• Ronald Julião at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)