Cuba Disappoints at the Paris Olympics
By Ronal Quiñones
HAVANA TIMES – The Paris 2024 Olympic Games have just concluded, and Cuba delivered its worst performance since Mexico 1968, capping off a four-year period in which it also recorded its poorest results in the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023 and the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile 2023.
This debacle is clearly influenced by the economic factor, as in the current context, sports need much more support—not only for preparation and competition but also to ensure the minimum conditions for athletes and coaches.
This situation has caused an unprecedented exodus in this century, and in the City of Light, 21 Cuban athletes competed for another country, including the Refugee Team.
It was with this delegation that the first setback for Cuban authorities occurred in Parisian soil, as they attempted to block the participation of the two Cubans included there.
Their misfortune began when they tried to exclude mainly the canoeist Fernando Dayan Jorge from the Games, who became famous not only for winning Cuba’s only Olympic gold in his sport (Tokyo 2020) but also for rescuing a person during his journey across the Rio Grande to reach the United States.
He will likely be rowing for his new nation in four years, but for this Olympics, he didn’t have time to complete the paperwork and secure a spot, so he opted to enroll in the Refugee Team.
After that stumble, the Cuban delegation experienced its biggest disappointment: the defeat of boxer Julio Cesar La Cruz, who was aiming for his third gold in these Games but couldn’t overcome one of his compatriots wearing a different jersey: Loren Berto Alfonso.
With fellow Cuban Pedro Roque in his corner, Alfonso advanced to the final of his category, not without first eliminating another countryman, Spain’s Enmanuel Reyes.
Even President Miguel Díaz-Canel dedicated a tweet to him because he spoke well of Cuba, and he was considered a good representative of the “true” emigration.
Then came the downfall of triple jumper Leyanis Perez, who, even in the absence of Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas, couldn’t secure a spot on the podium. Had the exceptional South American been there, the gold would have been assured, but in her absence, the competition was wide open, and much more was expected of the Cuban, who seemed nervous even on the qualification day and performed worse in the final.
In the same event, but among men, the entire podium was occupied by Cubans, but none represented the country where they were born: Yordan Diaz for Spain, Pedro Pablo Pichardo for Portugal, and Andy Diaz for Italy.
Thus, the first week of competitions ended without even a bronze, with the young beach volleyball duo providing the greatest joy, although their adventure ended when the knockout rounds began.
Then it was wrestling’s turn, and once again, Mijain Lopez stood out, unstoppable and convincingly winning all his bouts, including the final against another compatriot, the now Chilean Yasmani Acosta. They had trained together for over a decade, and it was known there would be little opposition in that final appearance of the Pinar del Río native in his sports career, which he ends at the top, as the best gladiator of all time, regardless of style, gender, or weight.
In Greco-Roman wrestling, the next day brought another upset with the defeat of Luis Orta, who ultimately settled for bronze. Orta lost to an opponent he had beaten earlier this year, but with clever tactics, as on the mat, the Iranian had been much better.
With just a few seconds left, Orta pretended to surrender, the Persian turned his back, and the Cuban projected him to win 7-5, despite his opponent’s understandable protests.
That bitter defeat made the Iranian seek revenge, and he put so much effort into it that he literally swept Orta when they faced each other in Paris, not allowing the reigning world champion of the division to score even a single point.
In this same sport, luck favored the Island when the Indian athlete who had beaten Yusneily Guzmán failed to make weight the next day, giving Guzman her spot in the final. There, Guzman couldn’t do much, as would likely have been the case if she had fought for bronze, which would have been her option if her opponent hadn’t failed the weigh-in.
Almost one after another, the sadness over the defeat of boxer Arlen Lopez and the joy of Erislandy Alvarez’s unexpected victory were added, saving what would have been the worst performance of Cuban boxing in the Olympic Games since it started making its presence felt in the medal table.
In the same sport, other Cuban coaches earned medals for France, Azerbaijan, Turkey, the Dominican Republic, China, and Algeria, and Javier Ibáñez took bronze representing Bulgaria.
Cuba was not present in indoor volleyball, but the two best players in the world are Melissa Vargas and Wilfredo León, the latter winning silver with Poland.
With only two golds, Cuba barely surpassed its medal count from Tokyo 1964 (one silver) and Mexico 1968 (four silvers), even though almost the entire sports budget over the last three years was concentrated on achieving a good performance in Paris.
Sports authorities openly acknowledged that they could no longer maintain the Central American reign or the second place in the Pan American Games, but they would manage to stay among the top 20 in the Olympics, and they didn’t even make it into the top 30 (finishing 32nd).
Thanks to Jamaica’s significant decline in sprinting, Cuba led the Caribbean, but Brazil was once again the best in Latin America, finishing 20th.
The worst part is that the Cuban economy shows no signs of recovery, making it impossible to stay in the elite of world sports; those days seem to be a thing of the past.