Olympic diver Ian Matos, who was part of the Brazilian team that played the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, died this Tuesday at 32 years of age victim of a lung infectionreported sports sources.
The Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) reported the athlete’s death in a message on Twitter in which expressed his “deep regret” for the “premature death of the Olympic jumper” and thanked the swimmer “for his contribution to the evolution of the modality”.
It is with deep regret that we receive the sad news of the premature death of Olympic jumper Ian Matos, 32 years old. O Time Brasil thanks you for all your contribution to the evolution of modality.
Our sincere sentiments to family and friends. pic.twitter.com/K75jMxSuH2
– Time Brasil (@timebrasil) December 21, 2021
Matos had been hospitalized since last October 30 in a hospital on Ilha Governador, in the city of Rio de Janeiro, where he arrived with a throat infection, but the bacteria lodged in the esophagus and the clinical condition progressed to a pulmonary complication which got worse the day before.
The athlete born in the city of Muaná, in the Amazon and northern state of Pará, played Pan-American and world championships in the junior category, and in the senior category defended Brazil in the South American Games (2010 and 2014) and in the Pan American Games in Guadalajara (2011), Toronto (2015) and Lima (2019).
Similarly, Matos competed in the Water Sports World Cups in Kazan (Russia, 2015) and Budapest (Hungary, 2017), as well as the Olympic Games and the Swimming World Cup held in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
