Cuba at the Olympic Games: A Deep Look at Rio

Cuba at the Olympic Games: A Deep Look at Rio
Fecha de publicación: 
24 August 2016
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Montreal 1976: in Alberto Juantorena’s legs, Teofilo Stevenson’s fists, Jorge Hernandez’s, Angel Herrera’s, or Hector Rodriguez’s uchi mata, Cuba achieved the most notable results in those Olympic Games. Up until then, Cuba had never won more than ten medals ever. In Montreal, Cuba ended 8th place with (6-4-3) with a delegation of 156 athletes.

Rio bid farewell last Sunday. They were 16 days of intense competition. Days where I witnessed with joy how Mijain Lopez wrestled Turkish Riza Kayaalp down to the mat, or where I swung one-two punches along with Robeisy and Arlen, or La Cruz. I even swam with Phelps, ran with Bolt, and celebrated with British brothers Brownlee.

I suffered with the tears of pole-vaulter Yarisley Silva when she could not surpass the 4.70m. I also suffered when the judges’ decision counted against wrestler Reinieri Salas.

But I will suffer no more, not until the next four years. A sports void consumes me like many other sports fans around the world.

Now when our passions cool off, it is the right time to begin the analysis.

Forecasts always have some margin of error. Personally, I am not fond of making any forecasts. I did coincide with Cuban sports’ gurus before Rio 2016 kicked off: we were in much better conditions in Rio than in London 2012. Suffice to say that in world championships held in 2015, the results were encouraging.

However, as it happened before in the Toronto-2015 Pan American Games, we underestimated the opponents and their training.

A DIFFERENT CONTEXT

Today’s realities in sports are quite different to those twenty years ago when Cuba was top-5 in Barcelona 1992 (14-6-11).

There are major facts: sports have developed around the world and great amount of money have been invested by sports powers. This is a very lucrative business nowadays. What’s more, it is one of the biggest shows in the entertaining world.

Cuba’s goals in Rio-2016 were to be among the top-20 and improve the gold medal totals won in London-2012. In practice, we were able to accomplish only the first goal.

To illustrate it, the top-10 countries in Rio are all highly developed countries; namely, USA, Great Britain, China, Russia, Germany, Japan, France, South Korea, Italy, and Australia.

For instance, Great Britain was able to take China’s place as runner-ups in this Olympic Games. GB allocated 280 millions of Sterling Pounds to prepare its delegation. For Sydney 2000, the British only allocated 60 millions. Now they combine talent with money. We could say they have invested almost 4.18 million for every medal.

Back to the Cuban athletes, their training fell far short of the one they had prior to Barcelona in 1992. We had excellent trainings and sports counseling from former socialist countries.

For Rio, it was complicated to keep an accurate training process due to the economical shortage of the country. In fact, sports discipline like judo, sport shooting, track and field, and wrestling had to migrate to other latitudes to train in proper conditions.

PERFORMANCES IN THE HOT SEAT

18th place among 207 nations for a developing country is not a bad result at all. Indeed, only 87 countries won medals in the Wonder City.

Amidst such battle, Cuba only won medals in four sports disciplines: boxing, wrestling, judo, and track and field. In Beijing-2008, eight sports disciplines contributed with medals and they were: sports shooting, cycling, taekwondo, wrestling, boxing, judo, taekwondo, and baseball. The latter will return in Tokyo 2020. Nonetheless, to be honest, the chances of the Cuban baseball team to qualify to Tokyo 2020 are very limited.

Our sports movement earned its prestige and magnificence on the basis of being an activity meant for everyone. Our recruitment process at all levels excelled. But such structures have damaged as time passed by.

Our delegation was composed of 124 athletes in 18 sports disciplines in Rio 2016. 35 of them ended in the first eight places including all of our boxers. Weightlifter Marina Rodriguez reached the 8th place in her debut as well as beach volleyball players Sergio Gonzalez-Nivaldo Diaz.

Let’s look deeper into the analysis:

Track and Field: The performance of the so-called King of Sports was mediocre. Except for the long relay in men, discus thrower Denia Caballero, decathletes Leonel Suarez and Yorgelis Rodriguez, 400m-runner Yoandys Lescay, and pole-vaulter Yarisley Silva, the other 39 athletes had poor results. They were far from their PB (Personal Bests). Denia Caballero’s bronze medal disguised a bit such a poor performance. This problem has been paralyzing our sports development for a long time now.

It is also worrisome that athletes like Maykel Masso (long jump) and Lazaro Martinez (triple jump) can inherit such “illness”. 15 days earlier, both had won their respective competitions with 8.00m and 17.06m.

Field events have kept athletics afloat. There is a lack of speedsters; except for the 110m hurdles. In Rio, Cuba did not compete well in hammer throw, javelin, and discus for men. Women’s triple jump and long jump, as well as high jump are nearly extinct in Cuba. Even though we celebrated the title of rookie Luis Enrique Zayas (2.27m)…

Boxing: It cannot deny it. From my perspective, only Lenier Perot did not have the chance to reach a medal in Rio. Three gold medals and other three bronze medals can be regarded as laudable. Nonetheless, important boxers like Roniel Iglesias, Yosbany Veitia, and Yasniel Toledo could not advance to the bronze medals given their status as medalists in world tournaments, and in Roniel’s case, Olympic medalist in London-2012.

Cuban boxing has increased its number of combats since Cuba was inserted in the World Series of Boxing, a mid-level tournament. Some of the boxers, however, fought notably in Rio.

I do believe our boxing team should be revised, even the shortlist. We should even weigh every boxer’s performance and see their actual potentialities.

Judo: Idalys Ortiz is a proven warrior. But Cuban judo is navigating into troubled waters. The female team has its entire technical staff brand new. Some of the main athletes should say goodbye. The Paris Grand Slam and the Asian tour are some of the main competitions Cuba is engaged in every season. Nonetheless, the results were not positive. Dayaris Mestre, Yalennis Castillo and rookie Alex Garcia did their best to win but certainly it was not enough.

Wrestling: An ode to the Greco-roman wrestling style headed by Mijain Lopez, Ismael Borrero, and Yasmany Lugo since Cuba won this wrestling style in Rio 2016. The freestyle wrestling could not win a single medal. That’s a shame, even though the unfair decision upon Reinieri Salas for the bronze medal.

Ineffective combat strategy and a very permissive defense sometimes were all handicaps of several of our wrestlers.

Artistic Gymnastics: Manrique Larduet deserves just one sentence. Quality, sense of shame, and courage diminish the embarrassing qualification of 15.033. Competing in two finals with an ankle injury and doing it with all confidence is something that gives prestige to the Cuban National Gymnastic School.

However, there are other concerns. Cyclist Lisandra Guerra has had a strong slump of results. She is very far from her usual performances. Except from Leurys Pupo, the other athletes from sports shooting had also inefficient results, among others.

The descending curve is perceptible. And the breach between the 29 medals reached in Sydney 2000 and the 11 won in Rio 2016, is sadly considerable…

Translated By Sergio A. Paneque Diaz // Cubasi Translation Staff

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