David Giralt, Sr.

David Giralt was the first long jumper from Central America and the Caribbean to jump eight metres, which he did at Warsaw on 29 May 1977. He had started setting national school records as a 16-year-old when he jumped 7.57. The following year, at the 1976 junior Central American and Caribbean Championships (CACC), Giralt won three golds, in the long jump, triple jump, with a personal best 16.25, and the 4x100 relay. At the senior CACC the following year, he won the long jump gold and also took bronze at the Summer Universiade at Sofia that year.

In 1978, at the quadrennial Central American and Caribbean Games at Medellín, Giralt won the long jump gold and at the 1979 Pan American Games at San Juan, Puerto Rico, he collected a silver medal. That same year he won a bronze medal at the World Cup in Montreal with his personal best 8.22. His last major medal was a silver at the 1981 CACC before he retired in 1983. He later turned to coaching his own two children. Son Arnie, finished fourth in the triple jump at the Beijing Olympics, and daughter Suslaydis was a multi-medallist at long jump, triple jump and 100 metres in national and international competitions for disabled athletes, including five medals at the Deaflympics.

Personal Best: LJ – 8.22 (1979).