RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan. 27 (Xinhua) -- Brazilian athletics coach Nelio Moura can still remember the look of anguish on the face of 18-year-old long-jumper Caio Cezar Fernandes.
Moments earlier, Fernandes - one of Brazil's brightest Olympic hopefuls - had fallen in a heap after his knee buckled during a state-level competition at Sao Paulo's Centro Olimpico.
"The first thing he said to me was, "What about my future?", Moura recalls. "We knew straight away that it was a serious injury."
It was March 2011. Seven months earlier Fernandes had won two gold medals at the youth Olympics in Singapore, confirming his standing as one of his country's leading medal contenders for the 2012 London Olympics.
But suddenly Fernandes's Olympic dream was in tatters. His seemingly innocuous awkward landing had caused the almost-complete rupture of ligaments and tendons in his right knee.
"The primary concern we had was to allow him to live normally again," the athlete's surgeon Moises Cohen said.
"It was a huge challenge but we were adamant we could help him achieve it."
Fernandes underwent two knee reconstructions in the ensuing weeks and finally began walking again nine months later.
Now, almost two years after that fateful day at Centro Olimpico, Fernandes is eyeing a return to competition.
"I've lost two great years and the chance to compete at the Pan American Games, the Olympics and the World Championships," Fernandes said.
"For that reason I am aiming for big things in the future. I dream of being the Olympic champion at the Rio Games (in 2016) so that people will know my story and everything I went through."