Former Olympian Daniel Nascimento’s family is calling for help after he disappeared from their home.
The Brazilian long distance runner’s mom, Valdirene de Paula Ferreira, is appealing for information on his whereabouts and shared an Instagram post Monday asking for help.
“His name is Daniel Nascimento,” she wrote, according to Instagram’s translation. “Better known [by the nickname] Armero. He was a marathon runner (he presents psychological issues).”
Ferreira also shared that her son left the family home in Paraguacu Paulista, a municipality in southwest Sao Paulo, on June 19 around 7 p.m with a black backpack.
She asked for any helpful information, and listed her phone number to her followers and beyond.
The family, however, only formally reported Nascimento’s disappearance to authorities Monday on the eve of the athlete’s 28th birthday.
Per The Sun, Ferreira said in an Instagram video that her son was under her care since he was banned from competing for five years in May 2025.
“I would go to work and he would come with me. He was always a good boy,” she reportedly said. “Sometimes I used to take him out for a run. He would do some training sessions in secret in the middle of the sugarcane fields. I think he really missed the routine of being an athlete.
“A thousand things go through your mind as a mother. I think I’ve lost about 10 kilos. Daniel’s siblings are also very worried. We just want him to show up.”
Nascimento, who is South America’s fastest marathoner, tested positive for three steroids one month prior to the Paris Summer Olympics in 2024.
It forced him to pull out of the Games, as well as the Los Angeles Olympics set for 2028.
Nascimento, who ran the marathon at the delayed 2020 Olympics, peaked in 2022 when he ran a 2:04:51 race at the Seoul Marathon, finishing third.
In that same year, he also placed eighth at the world championships in Eugene, Ore., and was the lead runner in the New York Marathon for more than 20 miles before collapsing due to exhaustion amid a warm-weather race.
