Tokío.- That his surname resembles that of the famous Spanish soccer team has brought him more than one joy and not a few disappointments. However, Jorge Luis Barcelán does not dribble or score goals. All his life he has been devoted to weights. First as an athlete, then as a coach and for seven years, the Cuban Federation of this discipline.
In his third Olympic Games he passes memories to those of London 2012 when his student Iván Cambar achieved the eighth medal at this level of our strongmen; to those of Rio de Janeiro 2016 in which for the first time a girl, Marina Rodríguez, was among the first eight. Now, Ludia Montero finished sixth and Marina repeated her place, so there is still reason to be optimistic.
The family has been the main supporter of each triumph and each step taken by Barcelán. He met his wife at a young age, when she tipped ippones and he got on the crowbar. Two sons, one a baseball player and the other a baseball player, Jorge Luis and George, complete a home that breathes for the Industrialists and, of course, for lifting weights.
One of the fathers of the female practice of this sport, the also Doctor of Science since December 6, 2016, is convinced that due to many lack of resources that exist, Cuban strongmen must bet on renewed and united work in the training methodology to give a greater leap in the results, which he recites by heart, including 84 world podiums for seniors and 112 at the same level among juniors.
He ponders the group of young coaches in the national teams and the work teams in each province, which have made it possible to progressively modify and update the ideas, such as retaking the 10-11 year category “because it takes time to accumulate the necessary technical elements and to develop the physical properties ”.
Charismatic and talkative, Barcelán considers it essential to talk about the link established by weights with the rest of sports, especially judo, wrestling, baseball, basketball, just to mention a few. He is critical when he recognizes that it will be difficult to have emuli of Daniel Nuñez, Pablo Lara or Iván Cambar again, although he dares to speak of María Félix, at the moment in the Pan American youth qualifier. “It should give us great joys in a short time.”
More dreams haunt him: recover the Academies, the ESPA that disappeared 17 years ago, but now he prefers to clarify again that they do not confuse him any more with the Iberian football club. He is a weightlifter.
