Though his speed and long-jumping ability were not extraordinary, Ferreira da Silva became an exceptional triple jumper, especially noted for his balance. He jumped 13.05 metres (42 feet 9.84 inches) in his first meet, in 1947; three years later, trained by German coach Dietrich Gerner, he soared 16 metres (52 feet 5.91 inches) to tie a 14-year-old world record. In 1951, at a national meet in Rio de Janiero, he broke the record by 0.01 metre (0.4 inch). Ferreira da Silva made his first Olympic Games appearance in 1948 in London, finishing 11th in the triple jump. In the finals of the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki, he set two world records in less than two hours, winning the gold medal. His longest jump measured 16.22 metres (53 feet 2.52 inches).

In 1953 Soviet triple jumper Leonid Sherbakov set a world record that bested Ferreira da Silva's mark by 0.01 metre. Two years later, in his 100th competition, Ferreira da Silva erased Sherbakov's record with a 16.56-metre (54 foot 3.96 inch) leap, the longest of his career. At the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne he won his second gold medal for the triple jump. Ferreira da Silva appeared in the 1959 Brazilian film Black Orpheus and made his final Olympic appearance in Rome in 1960, finishing 14th.