Unknown facts about Cuban athletes
DID YOU KNOW…
Taismary Agüero was born and raised in Cuba before becoming a naturalized Italian citizen. She is one of the most famous volleyball players of the 2000s. Led by Taismary Agüero, Cuba won the gold medal in volleyball at the 2000 Olympics in Australia. However, she escaped to Italy in 2001 and, after earning a call-up to the national team, she became the first naturalized volleyball player to score for Italy. Perhaps his greatest triumph was captaining his new country to its first World Cup triumph in Tokyo, Japan, in 2007. Ironically, Italy, led by the incredible play of Taismary Agüero, defeated Cuba 3-0 (27-25). , 25-19, 25-16) in the final.
Cuba did not send a boxing team to the 1985 World Cup in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Why? Because Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz did not recognize South Korea as an independent and sovereign country. There were many famous boxers who did not go to Korea: Juan Torres Odelin, Pedro Orlando Reyes, Arnaldo Mesa Borell, Jesus Sollet Tomasen, Adolfo Horta Martinez, Eduardo Correa Ferrer, Candelario Duvergel Odelin, Angel Espinoza Capo, Julio Quintana Martinez, Pablo Romero Hernández and Theophilus Stevenson Lawrence.
Ramón Fonst Segundo has won more Olympic gold medals than Teófilo Stevenson (boxing), Alberto Juantorena Danger (athletics), Mireya Luis Hernández (volleyball) and Félix Savon Fabre (boxing). Who is he? Ramón Fonst was a famous fencer in the 1900s, 1920s and 1930s.
He was born into a sports-oriented family in the Cuban capital of Havana on August 31, 1883. His father was an athlete in the 1870s and 1880s. Like José Raúl Capablanca (chess) and Eligio Sardinas Montalvo (boxing), he was a athlete who always competed with love for Cuba.
Ramón Fonst obtained 125 medals in competitions held in Europe, Latin America and North America. At the 1900 Olympics in France, Ramón won the gold medal in the épée event, and at the 1904 Summer Olympics in the United States, he won three gold medals. In 1926 he won two gold medals at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mexico City. Certainly, Ramón Fonst is the greatest Latin American athlete of the 20th century.
In the early 1990s, large numbers of athletes began to leave their country due to poor economic conditions there and harsh treatment by the secret police. Many sought refuge in the United States, Spain and Canada.
Cuba sent 2 athletes to the 2003 World University Games, which were held in Daegu, South Korea. They were Yordanis Arencibia and Yurileidys Lupetey (judo).
The 1987 World Junior Volleyball Championship was boycotted by Cuba. The place: South Korea. For the first time since 1978, Cuban volleyball players did not participate in an Olympic tournament. The Cuban team did not defend its world title that it had won in Rome two years earlier.
Cuba sent 120 athletes to the 1973 World Student Games, which were held in Moscow, USSR (now Russia). The Cuban contingent participated in nine Olympic sports: basketball, athletics, fencing, gymnastics, volleyball, water polo, diving, tennis and wrestling. The best athlete was Alberto Juantorena, who won a gold medal in the men’s 400 meters.
The Second Baseball World Cup was played in 1939 in Cuba. Three teams participated and the hosts beat Nicaragua in the final in Havana.
In 2006, Osmany Juantorena Portuondo was the 18th Cuban athlete to be disqualified for drugs. He is the grandson of Alberto Juantorena.
The Cuban dictatorship restricts athletes’ contacts with non-allied nations (especially South Korea, Poland, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Hungary and the Czech Republic). It allows few Cuban athletes to travel outside the country.
DID YOU ALSO KNOW THAT:
Like Alexandre Alekhine (France), Bobby Fischer (United States) and Garry Gasparov (Russia), José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera is considered by experts to be one of the most important chess players of the 20th century. He won the title of world chess champion from 1921 to 1927.
Where was Jose Capablanca born? He was born on November 19, 1888 in Havana.
The problem of illegal drug use among Cuban athletes shut down competition at the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. The most notable disqualification was that of Cuban weightlifter Daniel Núñez, who had won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, USSR. He was elected athlete of the year 1982 by Prensa Latina.
Jorge Enrico Blanco was one of the best known and loved boxers in Cuba. Why? In 1967 he won the Pan American lightweight title.
In the 1904 Olympic Games, the Cuban fencing team won 8 medals (3 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze).
María Teresa Mora Iturralde was a famous chess player. In 1922 she won the Cuban National Chess Championship.
From 1954 to 1968, Bertha Díaz won 258 gold medals. At the 1955 Pan American Games, she won the 60 meter dash and qualified for the 1956 Olympics. Unfortunately, she escaped from Cuba in the 1960s when it became a communist dictatorship. In 1956, she set a new Pan American record of 11.20 seconds in the 80 meter hurdles.
In February 1950, at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Guatemala City, Rafael Emilio Fortun Chacón established a new Cuban and world record in the 100 meter dash, born on August 5, 1919 in Camagüey, Cuba.
Manuel Sanguily became the first Cuban swimmer to qualify for the Olympic Games final, where he finished seventeenth in the world in the 200-meter breaststroke in Australia in 1956.
The Cuban volleyball team is a disaster. Why? Because more than 14 volleyball players requested political asylum in Europe and Puerto Rico (2001-2007). They included: Raydel Poey, Yasser Portuondo, Javier Gonzalez, Javier Brito, Maikel Salas, Yosleider Cala, Osvaldo Hernandez, Dennis Angel, Alexis Battle, Laseer Romero, Ramon Gato, Jorge Luis Hernandez, Ihosvany Hernandez, and Leonel Marshall.