The athlete had already made history in 2019 when he became the hockey player who made the most touches of the ball with the stick (513 touches). This feat earned him entry into the Guinness World Records at the time.

Hockey entered João's life when he was just five years old, however, he told NiT that “he had a kind of aversion to inline skating. It requires a different technique from the way we skate. Parallel skates have a brake at the front and you just need to tilt your back to brake. If we do that with the linear ones, we fall flat.”

João wanted to try inline skates, despite all his fears, and started using them around two years ago.

Over time, the athlete covered more and more kilometres at once. When in May he did 100 kilometers, without taking the wheels off his feet, he thought, “If I can do this, I can also do the trip around Portugal”.

He told NiT that “the idea started to mess with my head. I decided to research and plan a suitable route, to avoid dirt paths and cobblestones.” His girlfriend and a college friend also joined this journey so that João would have a support car, in case something went wrong and to help him on the steepest descents.

To finance this adventure, the hockey player had to find extra work in a factory, however, the money was not enough and he still needed the support of sponsors.

The journey began on the morning of August 27th, from Caminha, Viana do Castelo, towards Portimão. The trip ended on September 7th. In total, it was 12 days and 798 kilometers of skating without ever falling.

The hockey player covered around 60 to 70 kilometers a day, but whenever it rained he had to stop for safety reasons. When the descents were steeper, João leaned on the support car to slow down.

The adventure ended on September 7th, when he arrived in Portimão. Despite the pain in his feet, the following day, he returned to training at Hóquei Clube Vasco da Gama de Sines.