Armando de Almeida. A Lesson in Resistance in Portuguese Running Culture

Abstract

In March 1913, Armando de Almeida won the "Semana Desportiva" (Sports Week) marathon organised by the newspaper O Mundo. In May of the same year, he repeated the feat by winning the marathon at the National Olympic Games, then the most important athletics competition in the country. For these victories, he was considered the national marathon champion for 1913 by the Federação Portuguesa de Atletismo (Portuguese Athletics Federation). It is worth noting that the Federação Portuguesa de Atletismo only formally existed in 1921. Against the backdrop of significant political and social upheaval and within an elitist and largely unstructured ecosystem, Armando de Almeida stood out among the core group of athletes participating in these new forms of leisure and mass cultural demonstrations — long-distance pedestrian races. His active involvement in the running culture of the metropolis coincided with the emergence and growth of the Black movement (1911–1933) — which pioneered political activism against racism in Portugal.

This text delves into the recovery of photographs and narratives from the early days of Portuguese athletics, aiming to biograph Armando de Almeida. Through an exercise of empathy and activism, it contributes to the debate, counteracting historical oversights and invisibilities. Additionally, it attempts to reconstruct the connections between the athlete's emancipatory endeavours and the organisation of political and social movements during the turbulent period of the First Republic. Set in the capital of a colonial empire with a notable presence of people of African descent, it explores this centuries-old historical phenomenon.