[4] He won two Olympic gold medals and set four world records, the last being 16.56 metres in 1955 Pan American Games.

To date, he remains the only track and field athlete from South America to have won two Olympic gold medals.

Silva was a polyglot, having learned English, Finnish, French, Japanese, Italian, German, and Spanish in addition to Portuguese.

[5] Silva was a member of the São Paulo Futebol Clube, and because of him, the team coat has two gold stars above its emblem.

He would call his lifelong mentor and coach Dietrich Gerner as his "German dad" and the duo maintained a very strong bond.

[9] He claimed a bronze medal in the men's triple jump event at the 1949 South American Athletics Championships.

[13][14] He set another world record in September 1951 during a Brazilian national meet in Rio de Janeiro, just months before the highly anticipated 1952 Olympics and his world record performance of 16.01 metres made him a clear favorite to claim gold at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics.

He also claimed a gold medal in the men's triple jump event at the 1952 South American Championships in Athletics.

Popular world renowned French athletics writer Alain Billouin had described Adhemar's record breaking performance in the 1952 Olympics as "Gracefully, he skimmed through each hop-step-and-jump, displaying the poise and fitnesse of a samba dancer.

He secured gold medal in triple jump event during the 1953 Summer International University Sports Week.

Two years later in 1955, he reclaimed his world record from Leonid when he landed a massive leap of 16.56 metres in the men's triple jump at the 1955 Pan American Games in what was also coincidentally his 100th competition.

[25][26] He also competed in the men's long jump event at the 1955 Pan American Games but failed to progress to the next round.

[25][26] He also clinched gold medal in the triple jump event at the 1955 Summer International University Sports Week.

Einarsson came in as a surprising element who gave an unexpected challenge for Adhemar with the latter's bid to reclaim the Olympic title was almost quashed.

However, he could not able to showcase the momentum in men's long jump event at the 1959 Pan American Games as he failed to progress to the final.

[5] He also received strong applause and standing ovation from the crowd when he hung his boots from international athletics with this final Olympic appearance coming at the age of 33.

He was also given a standing ovation during the medal presentation and a judge handed him the Flag of Brazil and told him: "The public wants you to take a walk.

In 1987, he was honored by the IAAF in Rome where his notable jumps in Helsinki Olympics was also chosen as one of the all-time 100 Golden Moments.

[49] Rosemary was fifteen when she witnessed Adhemar's Melbourne Olympics gold medal performance and she was one of the girls among the spectators to have cheered for him.

[50] Following the death of Adhemar, both Rosemary and her spouse Wilf set up a scholarship that pays for an exchange between Australian and Brazilian schools.

[5] Adhemar's daughter Adyel initiated 'Jump for Life' project on remembrance of her father and also to help people from underprivileged and deprived areas to athletics.

[53] In 2019, the shoes and spikes worn by Adhemar during 1956 Olympics were displayed in the IAAF Heritage World Athletics Championships Exhibition which was held in Doha, Qatar.

[54] The spikes worn by him are currently kept as treasures in The National Sports Museum at the Melbourne Cricket Ground where the 1956 Olympics were also held.