[2][3] Having been the most represented club in the Olympic Games, this section of the sports club, headed many decades by athletics coach Mário Moniz Pereira (1921 – 2016), is one of the most decorated Portuguese athletics teams and is responsible for much of the titles won by the sports club throughout its history.
Sporting Portugal's athletics department long-distance runner Carlos Lopes won the marathon at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles for Portugal, becoming Portugal's first Olympic gold medalist ever.
[4] In the 1976 Summer Olympics, he had already won the first Olympic silver medal in the history of Portuguese sports, competing in the men's 10,000 metres.
[5] The annual Sporting running race, established in 2011, is organized by the club[6][7][8] as well as the international athletics meeting Meeting de Atletismo Professor Moniz Pereira.
[9] Copa Iberica [10] [1] Sporting CP Official Website