Brian Pintado celebrated in style after taking home Ecuador’s first medal of the Paris Olympics.
Pintado won the gold medal during Thursday’s men’s 20km race walk. He finished with an impressive time of 1:18:55, beating out the rest of the field by 14 seconds.
After crossing the finish line, Pintado decided to do the Cristiano Ronaldo celebration. He leapt in the air and threw out his arms, mirroring Ronaldo’s famous “Siiiuuuu!” move that the soccer icon does after scoring goals.
Take a look.
Grande Ecuador! Primer Oro en Paris 2024.
We just won our first gold in the Paris Olympics and Pintado hit the SIIIIIUUUU! when he crossed the line. pic.twitter.com/HPPoXNIv03
— C𝚑𝚘𝚙S𝚞𝚎𝚢 🇪🇨 (@chopsueyfc) August 1, 2024
Pintado confirmed in a post to Instagram after the race that the celebration was indeed a tribute to Ronaldo.
Hace unas horas, publicamos que Daniel Pintado hizo el SIIIIIIIIIIU de Cristiano Ronaldo para festejar su MEDALLA DE ORO en los 20 km de marcha en los Juegos Olímpicos de París 2024. El ecuatoriano vio que pusimos su celebración y respondió con el siguiente mensaje: "Muchas… pic.twitter.com/XzDtVQwzAs
— Invictos (@InvictosSomos) August 1, 2024
The 29-year-old Pintado, who also competed at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, secured the first medal of any kind for Ecuador at the Paris Games. It is also just the sixth medal ever for Ecuador at the Olympics (Summer or Winter).
As for the Ronaldo celebration, it is often imitated by some of sports’ biggest stars (including some very well-known NBA players). Pintado now joins the list as well and can say that he has something that not even Ronaldo, who never won an Olympic medal in soccer for his native Portugal, has.
