TOKYO.-Cuba will compete in 15 sports and in 64 events in the Olympic Games, which makes even more difficult, although not unattainable, the purpose of finishing in the top 20 of the medal table. What will be the leading disciplines of the Greater Antilles for this purpose?
Most nations, especially the less developed – and we already know that the rich world is tiny – base their aspirations on one or two sports. There are them, such as Jamaica and several from Africa, for example, Kenya and Ethiopia, which are based in one of the specialties such as athletics, in which the Caribbean are very strong in the area of speed and the Africans in the background. .
Kenya and Jamaica ranked 13th and 14th, respectively, in Beijing-2008, dominating, with six gold, those sectors of the field and track. This is the case with other countries, such as Indonesia in badminton, or Colombia in women’s weightlifting.
Cuba, also a small nation, underdeveloped, blocked and persecuted to leave it without its main athletes, is not the exception, since it has had a stronghold in boxing in each of its presentations in this demanding scenario. The boxers, with 37 golden medals, carry 47.8% of the archipelago’s champion trophies.
Today they are once again the prop where the great hopes of victory are sustained. However, there are forecasts from some agencies that give Cuban fighters two wins in the Japanese capital. “I respect all the criteria, but the boys have a little more to do than that,” Julio César la Cruz, Olympic and world champion, captain of that squad, told us.
“Every time I step into the ring it’s like I’m doing it for the gold medal. For the schemes of the competitions of our sport, we must apply the maxim that Professor Alcides Sagarra left us: “if you don’t win today, you won’t fight tomorrow.” That is to say, you run out of the title ». La Cruz added that they do not underestimate any adversary, “but really the account must be higher.”
Even though the podiums of the Greater Antilles are best seen from the ring, Cuba not only has the possibilities of its fists. Athletics, the second sport that has contributed the most medals under the five rings (11-13-18), comes to this city as the protagonist, with at least two great chances of victory, although the competition is the one that dictates the sentence. The fight, which has not stopped obtaining titles since Barcelona-1992, has a couple of very high possibilities: Mijaín López and Ismael Borrero, and none of their teammates can be ruled out as medalists.
The women’s and men’s judo teams will be another bulwark, despite the fact that only three qualified for each sex. Ydalys Ortiz, three times at the award ceremonies for these events, and captain of her collective, told us “that she sees a lot of motivation. We know that the people expect a result and we have made the sacrifice to meet that high demand, yes, because the Olympians have a lot of dedication and, in a situation like the one we live today, even more so ». Iván Silva, who leads the men, commented that “it is a great responsibility, but that challenge motivates commitment.” The two of them fell ill with COVID-19 and have barely competed, but they are the best positioned in the ranking and in the expectations not only of Cuba, but in that of not a few analysts.
Boating, sport shooting and taekwondo will not be stone guests here either. The opponents of the Cuban vessels, the gunmen and Rafael Alba, the only taekwondoca of the archipelago in the fight, know that they inhabit the elite of their sports and that they belong to the court of the winners in the main events of the world.
Cuba is not just boxing, its development has allowed it to open its spectrum of possibilities to what is worth the most and shines on the planet sport
