Lopes won the
World Cross Country Championships in
Chepstow, Wales in 1976. At the
1976 Summer Olympics in
Montreal, Lopes competed in the 10,000 metres. In the race, Lopes set the pace from the 4000 metres mark, and the only athlete to follow him was defending double Olympic champion
Lasse Virén. Virén passed Lopes with a lap to go to win the gold medal, and Lopes finished a comfortable second. During the race, Lopes ran the first 5,000 metres in 14:08.94, and the second 5,000 metres in 13:36.23, a remarkable proof of his ability to steadily accelerate his pace. What he generally lacked in the track races, however, was an ability to sharply increase his pace in the final lap or so. In the following year, Lopes finished second to
Leon Schots in World Cross Country Championships in
Düsseldorf, Germany. Afterward, Lopes had several injuries and did not qualify for
1980 Summer Olympics in
Moscow. In 1982, Lopes returned to top form, and in
Oslo, Norway, he broke the 10,000 metres European record with a time of 27:24.39, which belonged to his teammate
Fernando Mamede. At the
1982 European Athletics Championships in
Athens, Greece, Lopes finished fourth in the 10,000 metres with a time of 27:47.95, behind the winner
Alberto Cova. During the race, he set the pace from 6,000 metres to 9,800 metres before being overtaken on the final lap. Lopes attempted his first marathon at the 1982
New York City Marathon, but he did not finish due to an accident in which he ran into a spectator. In 1983, he finished second at the World Cross Country Championships in
Gateshead, England. Lopes ran his second marathon at the
Rotterdam Marathon in 1983. He finished second in a European record time of 2:08:39, two seconds behind the race winner,
Robert de Castella. He then decided to run the 10,000 metres at the
1983 World Championships in
Helsinki, Finland, where he finished sixth behind the winner Alberto Cova. After that he decided to concentrate on the marathon and cross country. In 1984, Lopes won his second
World Cross Country Championships in
East Rutherford, United States. In
Stockholm, Sweden, he paced teammate Fernando Mamede to break
Henry Rono's 10,000 metres world record of 27:22.50. Mamede won in 27:13.81 with Lopes finishing second in 27:17.48.
Olympic champion An accident almost prevented Lopes from participating in the
1984 Summer Olympics in
Los Angeles when, a week before the Games, he was run over by a car in
Lisbon but he was not hurt. The Olympic marathon at
Los Angeles was run in very warm conditions, and as the favorites gradually fell away, Lopes won the gold medal with a 200 metres advantage and in an Olympic record time of 2:09:21 at the age of 37. This victory established his reputation as a world class runner, because he ran the last at an average speed of 2:55 per km (4:42 per mile), a remarkably quick pace at the end of a marathon. Lopes' Olympic record stood until the
2008 Summer Olympics in
Beijing, China, when Kenyan
Sammy Wanjiru won with a time of 2:06:32. In 1985, Lopes won the World Cross Country Championships in
Lisbon, Portugal for the third and final time in his career.
Marathon world record In the last major competitive race of his career, the 1985
Rotterdam Marathon, Lopes took 53 seconds off the world's best marathon time with a winning time of 2:07.12, and becoming the first man to run 42.195 km in less than 2:08.00. ==Honours==