Cuban boxers were surprised by the popularity of snowboarding in Poland

Winter sports don’t exist here and we don’t have representatives at the Beijing Olympics. We were surprised by the popularity of snowboarding in Poland; for example, Cuban boxers trained at the Walczak Boxing Club run by Krzysztof Block in Poznan.

olympic puzzle

Cuban athletes have won 235 medals in the history of the Summer Olympics, a third of them in boxing (78). In boxing, they have almost half of the gold records, 41 out of 84. They are ideal for athletics, judo and wrestling. But they never participated in the Winter Olympics.

– Cuba is summer all year round, and changes in the weather can be observed in the wet and dry seasons, which last from May to October and from November to April respectively. It rarely snows, so the Cuban players saw it for the first time after arriving in Poland. Well, the winter training and the Olympic Games that are taking place in Beijing are a big mystery to them, but maybe we can encourage them to look around a bit… – said 28-year-old Block, who has visited the hot island several times. before. him bringing Cubans to Greater Poland.

The first at the Walchuk club in Poznan Debek, at the end of 2020, are Ihosvani García, Evander Rivera and Pablo Sánchez along with coach Francisco Pérez, and a few weeks ago they were joined by Christian López and Carlos Buri. The Cubans fight in professional matches, but also work daily as trainers in the Krzysztof Bloc.
Boxing is the love of his life, but at home they were also passionate about baseball.

– I think they are the most surprising, they cannot understand why this sport practically does not exist in our country – added the Polish coach.

Who are Stoch and Macy’s?

We spoke with García, Rivera, Sánchez, López, Bure and coach Pérez (who directed, among others, Héctor Vinenta, Olympic champion from Barcelona and Atlanta – editor) after training on Tuesday. The Cubans’ statements are explained by Block, a boxing fan, a former baseball player. In the second half of March, its foreign players will perform at the festival events presented by TVP Sport and Polsat Sport.

– Only Pablo Sánchez, who is awaiting shoulder surgery, will not participate in boxing. The others look forward to the next duels.

“If we had a winter in Cuba, I would have tried ice hockey and I could go ice skating,” says Rivera, adding Puri. Others argue that they have seen competition “shots” of bobsleigh and curling on television, but know nothing about these disciplines.

– Recently, Ihosvani García, with his wife, who came to Poland a few months ago, and Christian López, went to one of the ice rinks in Poznan. They put their sleds on their feet for the first time and then said they had a lot of fun. But it turns out that Christian has only now admitted to owning multiple dump trucks, Block reports.

Cubans learn Polish, have friends in our country and sometimes spend their free time with them.

– García began his adventure with… the sea. This morning was the third time and I was 8 minutes in the water. It started with 2 minutes, then it was 5 minutes and it looks like he liked it… – Krzysztof laughs and after a while tells Lihosvani: – Remember that swimming is not a sport, much less an Olympic one!

We ask Adam Małysz, Kamel Stoch and Dawid Kubacki, and the Cuban boxers raise their eyebrows. – Yes, we have seen ski jumps on the Internet, but they are very popular in Poland and we had no idea. And if the Olympics still jump in Beijing, we’ll probably take a look, announcing the youngest, 20-year-old Puri and Lopez. [rozmowa miała miejsce jeszcze przed startami skoczków – przyp. red.]

play snowballs

In February 2013, Havanans watched the snow fall in amazement. Plus it was cold. The average temperature this month was 25 degrees, while the mercury bars showed just over 10 degrees, sometimes even lower. Although the beaches were only for a short time, they were covered with a thin layer of white dust.

– Snow in Cuba is unusual, especially in Santiago de Cuba, where we come from. The capital of Havana is 900 km away. As for Cuban television, sometimes the news says something about hockey, curling or skating, but maybe it’s just because of the Olympics. There is no winter, there is no infrastructure for winter sports, that is why our athletes have never practiced such a sport before. I haven’t heard of anyone moving to, say, the US to be able to skateboard or hockey professionally. Coach Pérez, 69, explained that Cuba has its own national sports, such as boxing and baseball, and these are the focus of players and fans.

Krzysztof Block was not surprised by these words: – We Poles love to jump, because Biao-Czerwoni won medals at the Olympics and world championships, which made the country famous. The Cubans in the majors of the team focus on baseball and have five Olympic medals and martial arts such as boxing, wrestling, judo and taekwondo. They do a great job, for example, in technical competitions in athletics, in Tokyo they won medals in men’s long jump and women’s leadership. For them, winter sports are something like that, not an insult to those sports like baseball or cricket for us. But when Christian and Carlos saw snow fall in Poznan, they played like children. He said that throwing snowballs devoured them for a few minutes.

white spots

Representatives from 91 countries compete in the Beijing Olympics, there were 206 in Tokyo, and of the 54 African countries, only athletes from Eritrea, Ghana, Madagascar, Morocco and Nigeria came to China. A Kenyan international won qualification but later withdrew. Compared to the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, this time there is no North Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Togo and Tonga.

I never thought we would talk about Cuba in the context of the Winter Games. But maybe it will convince the boys to be a little interested… Personally, I became interested in this country after seeing the documentary “Hijos de Cuba”, which shows the story of three boys who are preparing for a boxing competition. I traveled to Cuba for the first time in January 2019 and I know a little Spanish. Today I am glad that there are wonderful people around me, from Cuba and Poland – confirmed Blok.

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