Thiago Machado Vilela Pereira (born 26 January 1986) is a retired Brazilian international competition swimmer. One of the greatest swimmers in the history of Brazil, Pereira won the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, finishing ahead of defending Olympic champion Michael Phelps. He also broke the world record in the short course 200-meter individual medley, and broke several South American and Brazilian records. During his career, he competed with swimming legends Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte.

Pereira is a resident of Belo Horizonte, and became known as Ricardo Prado's successor in his native country after winning the silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 2003. In 2004, he won the world title in the same event at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships. After that, Pereira won six gold medals at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, breaking the record of five gold medals won in one Pan American Games, previously held by Mark Spitz. Pereira broke the short course 200-meter individual medley world record later that same year. He represented Brazil at three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 2004.

As of July 2015, Pereira is the Brazilian athlete with most gold medals won in Pan American Games: 15 earned in four Pan American Games. In 2015, Pereira became the athlete with the most medals in the history of Pan American Games, surpassing the Cuban gymnast Eric López, who won 22 medals between 1991 and 2003. Pereira finished Toronto with 23 total medals.

Early years, clubs and personal life Pereira started swimming at age two when his mother enrolled him in swimming school after he fell into a pool and nearly drowned. At 12, he won his first medal, a bronze in a competition in Volta Redonda, Brazil. At the same age, he won a federated championship in a competition in Valença, defending the CSN club. After several more competition wins between the ages of 13 and 16, Pereira received a proposal to join Belo Horizonte's Minas Tênis Clube in 2001, under the command of coach Fernando Vanzela. From there, Pereira became ranked among the top swimmers in Brazil and the world.

Pereira trained in the United States in 2005, moving shortly after the 2004 Summer Olympics. He moved to Coral Springs, Florida, but could not adapt to the local environment, methods and customs, and returned to Belo Horizonte. In 2009, after Pereira and Vanzela analyzed his options, Pereira moved to Auburn, California and trained at University of Southern California under coach Dave Salo.Thiago Pereira alcança isolamento de Cielo nos EUA: "tenho mais disciplina", UOL Esporte He remained with USC's Trojan Swim Club for two years.

In April 2010, Pereira joined the swimming team of São Paulo's Sport Club Corinthians Paulista. In August 2011, he accepted a proposal to integrate into César Cielo's project PRO 16, under the command of Brazil's national swimming team coach Albertinho Silva. In December that year, he announced that would stay in Brazil full-time, living in São Paulo to train with Silva. In 2013, he left Corinthians Paulista and PRO 16, and shortly afterwards he joined the SESI-SP club.

In early 2013, Pereira married lawyer Gabi Pauletti.

In April 2015, Pereira returned to Minas Tênis Clube, his first professional club.

International career

2002–04 At the age of 16, Pereira competed at the 2002 South American Games in Belém, where he won a gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke.

Pereira competed at the 2003 World Aquatics Championships in Barcelona, where he finished 18th in the 200-meter individual medley, 24th in the 400-meter individual medley, and 25th in the 200-meter breaststroke. In the 200-meter individual medley, he broke the South American record for the first time, with a time of 2:02.67.

At the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Pereira won the silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley, and a bronze medal in the 400-meter individual medley. In the 200-meter individual medley, he broke the South American record with a time of 2:02.31.

In September 2003, he broke Marcelo Tomazini's South American record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:15.63.

In December 2003, Pereira won the 400-meter individual medley eventthe third event of the 2003–2004 FINA Swimming World Cup in Durban, South Africabeating the short course South American record of Colombian Alejandro Bermudez that had stood since 1998 (4:16.74), with a time of 4:10.93.

In February 2004, in the last event of the 2003–2004 FINA Swimming World Cup, in Rio de Janeiro, he broke his own 55.41 second South American 100-meter individual medley record with a time of 54.95 seconds, and also broke the 200-meter individual medley record with a time of 1:58.16.

In March 2004, in the 37th South American Swimming Championships in Maldonado, Pereira won the gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley, beating the South American record with a time of 2:00.19 and earning an "A" designation in Brazil's Olympic classification. He also broke the South American record two more times, with times of 1:59.92 and 1:59.48, before competing in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, becoming second in the world rankings.

In May 2004, Pereira broke Ricardo Prado's long-course South American record in the 400-meter individual medley, made at the 1984 Summer Olympics, which had been 4:18.45. Pereira swam for 4:17.62 and again obtained Brazil's Olympic classification.

2004 Summer Olympics For the first time, Thiago was ranked high enough among Brazilian athletes to compete in the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he finished fifth in the 200-meter individual medley and 17th in the 400-meter individual medley. In the 400-meter individual medley, his first Olympic event, Thiago was so anxious that he felt nauseous. His time was 4:22.06, almost five seconds slower than his South American record. He left the pool, gasping and unable speak, and subsequently vomited in the locker room. He did not reach the final, and later said, "I feel very bad". In the 200-meter individual medley, he swam close to his best time but did not beat it. The race pace was strong: Thiago would have had to break his personal best by about 0.7 seconds to win the bronze medal.

2004–08 In September 2004, at the José Finkel Trophy, he broke the short-course South American record in the 100-meter individual medley, with a time of 53.72 seconds, and the 400-meter individual medley record with a time of 4:09.10.

At the 2004 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) in Indianapolis, Pereira won the gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 1:55.78, defeating Ryan Lochte and breaking the South American record. In the 4×100-meter freestyle, he won a silver medal and he also won two bronze medals in the 100-meter individual medley and 4×200-meter freestyle, beating the South American record with a time of 7:06.64.

In May 2005, Pereira dislocated the kneecap while playing soccer; his recovery took two months and did not participate in the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal.

At the 2005–2006 FINA Swimming World Cup in February 2006, Pereira broke the short-course South American record in the 100-meter individual medley with a time of 53.49 seconds.

At the 2006 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) in Shanghai, Pereira finished 5th in the 4×200-meter freestyle with teammates César Cielo, Lucas Salatta and Rodrigo Castro, beating the South American record with a time of 7:06.09. He also finished 15th in the 200-meter individual medley and 17th in the 200-meter freestyle.

At the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships in Victoria, British Columbia, Pereira won a bronze medal in the 400-meter individual medley. In heats, he broke his own South American record with a time of 4:16.86. He also finished 21st in the 200-meter freestyle and qualified for the 200-meter individual medley final in 8th place, but did not swim in the final.

In September 2006, at the Brazil Trophy, he broke his South American record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:14.64.

In December 2006 at the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, he beat his South American record by more than two seconds in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:14.67.

At the 2007 World Aquatics Championships in Melbourne, Pereira finished 4th in the 200-meter individual medley, 8th in the 4×100-meter freestyle, 9th in the 4×100-meter medley, 11th in the 4×200-meter freestyle, 12th in the 100-meter backstroke, and was disqualified at the 400-meter individual medley. He broke the South American record in the 4×100-meter freestyle along with César Cielo, Nicolas Oliveira and Rodrigo Castro, with a time of 3:17.03. and in the 4×200-meter freestyle, with a time of 7:20.00, along with Rodrigo Castro, Nicolas Oliveira and Armando Negreiros.

Pereira broke the South American record in the 200-meter individual medley three in three months with times of 1:59.19 in February, 1:58.65 in March (Melbourne heats) and 1:58.64 in May.

In May 2007, he broke two South American records in long course: the 400-meter individual medley record with a time of 4:11.91 and the 200-meter breaststroke record with a time of 2:12.67, in both getting the Olympic index.

At the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Pereira won eight medals (six gold, one silver and one bronze) and became the winner of the most medals in a single edition of the Games, equaling the Costa Rican swimmer Silvia Pollwho won eight medals at 1987 in Indianapolis. Pereira also surpassed the five gold mark that belonged to Mark Spitz in the 1967 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg. Pereira won the gold medal in the 200-meter individual medley, 400-meter individual medley, 200-meter backstroke, 200-meter breaststroke, 4×200-meter freestyle, and 4×100-meter freestyle by participating in heats. He also won the silver medal in the 4×100-meter medley and bronze in the 100-meter backstroke. He broke the South American record in all events in which he competed, except the 200-meter breaststroke: in the 200-meter individual medley with a time of 1:57.79, in the 400-meter individual medley with a time of 4:11.14, in the 200-meter backstroke, with a time of 1:58.42; in 100-meter backstroke with a time of 54.75 seconds, in the 4×200-meter freestyle with a time of 7:12.27, and in the 4×100-meter medley with a time of 3:35.81.

At the 2007 FINA Swimming World Cup, Pereira made history. In the Stockholm stage, he broke the short-course South American record in the 100-meter individual medley, with a time of 52.97 seconds (his old record was 53.49 seconds from 2006), 200-meter individual medley, with a time of 1:55.08 (his old record was 1:55.78 from 2004) and the 400-meter individual medley record with a time of 4:06.30 (his old record was 4:09.10 from 2004). A few days later, in Berlin, Pereira broke the Americas record in the 100-meter individual medley in 52.42 seconds. In the 400-meter individual medley, he broke the Americas record and the Championship record, doing 4:00.63; within 26 hundredths of László Cseh's world record (4:00.37). In the 200-meter individual medley, Pereira won a gold medal with a time of 1:53.14, establishing a new World Record that stood until 13 December 2007.

2008 Summer Olympics