Saturday 09 August
2008, San José, Costa Rica
SPORTS-CUBA:
Going for Gold - Once
Again
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) - Cuba’s
prestige among the
global sports élite for
the past three decades
testifies to the
effectiveness of a mass,
free physical education
system which the
government has supported
through the ups and
downs of the national
economy.
This Caribbean island
nation of 11.2 million
people has led Latin
America and the
Caribbean since the
1970s at the Olympic,
Pan-American and Central
American Games,
distinguishing itself
ahead of countries with
much larger populations
and higher levels of
economic development, as
well as sending
thousands of instructors
on cooperation missions
to contribute to the
progress of sports in
dozens of countries.
"In Cuba, anyone can
become an athlete,
whether he or she is
born in Havana or in the
most remote village in
Guantánamo," Ángel
Gutiérrez, a retired
physical education
teacher who taught at
primary schools for over
20 years, told IPS.
In fact, none of the
present Cuban record
holders started their
athletics careers in
Havana. Dayron Robles,
the 110-metre hurdles
champion, is from the
country’s easternmost
province of Guantánamo,
while javelin thrower
Osleydis Menéndez and
high jumper Javier
Sotomayor were born in
Matanzas, more than 100
kilometres east of the
Cuban capital.
This socialist country
has a well-organised
talent spotting and
training system that
begins with the Sports
Initiation Schools (EIDE),
which send promising
athletes to the annual
National School Games,
the first competitive
event for most of the
members of Cuba’s
Olympic teams.
The aspiring athletes
later attend the Higher
Schools for Athletic
Improvement (ESPA) and
finally the National
High Performance Centres,
where teams are trained
for international
competitions.
But the thousands of
sports facilities are
not exempt from the
effects of the country’s
economic crisis and
shortcomings in
management by the sports
authorities, aggravated
by the impact of the
decades-old U.S. embargo
which hinders purchases
of sports equipment.
The boxing training
centre, located on the
outskirts of Havana, was
partially closed two
years ago because of
appalling conditions in
the training area and
dormitories. Meanwhile,
swimming is being held
back because of the dire
state of swimming pools
on the island.
Physical education is an
obligatory subject at
all levels of education.
It is taught by about
40,000 teachers trained
since the triumph of the
Cuban Revolution in
1959, when phys ed
teachers numbered less
than 1,000.
Figures from the
National Statistics
Office (ONE) indicate
that close to 4.4
million people regularly
practiced sports in Cuba
in 2007, although only
163,396 of them did so
at a high performance
level.
Mass physical education
is one of the
government’s oldest
policies, reflected in
its creation of the
National Institute for
Sports, Physical
Education and Recreation
(INDER) in 1961, on the
principle that "sports
are the people’s right."
This approach bore fruit
at the Central American
and Caribbean Games in
1970, in Panama, where
Cuba won by far the most
medals. A year later it
took second place behind
the United States in the
Pan-American Games held
in Cali, Colombia, a
position it has held
ever since.
Cuba hosted the Central
American and Caribbean
Games in 1982, and the
Pan-American Games in
1991, an occasion on
which, for the first and
only time, it won more
gold medals than the
United States.
As for the Olympic
Games, Cuba holds more
gold medals than the
rest of the countries of
Latin American and the
Caribbean combined, and
up to the Athens
Olympics in 2004 it was
ranked 14th in the
world. It began to stand
out as an Olympic leader
in the region in 1972 in
Munich, where it took
three gold medals in
boxing.
The Cuban delegation to
the Beijing games is
made up of 165 athletes,
most of them without
previous Olympic
experience. Their goal
is to be ranked among
the first 15 countries,
and to maintain their
supremacy in Latin
America and the
Caribbean.
However, Cuba’s
performance at several
competitions within the
last five years has been
declining.
At the Pan-American
Games in Santo Domingo
in 2003, the island
captured 72 gold medals,
while last year in Rio
de Janeiro it took only
59, seven more than
Brazil. In 2006, at the
Central American Games
in the Colombian city of
Cartagena, it won only
31 medals more than
Mexico, the runner-up,
whereas on the previous
occasion Cuba was 130
medals ahead of Mexico.
One of the causes of
this decline might be
the continual emigration
of athletes who abandon
their national teams or
sports cooperation
missions -- one of the
pillars of Cuban foreign
policy -- in many Latin
American countries and
elsewhere.
Defections by athletes,
who are then regarded as
"traitors" by the
authorities, have hurt
sports like boxing,
baseball, volleyball,
basketball and football.
Football alone lost
seven players in the
pre-Olympic tournament
held in Tampa, Florida
in the United States,
and the volleyball squad
had to be renewed twice,
for similar reasons.
In only two years the
Cuban boxing team,
formerly invincible in
international
competitions, saw four
of its best members,
Olympic and world
champions, leave the
team for professional
boxing, banned in 1962
by former President
Fidel Castro.
"Cuban sports policy
creates the conditions
for excellent training
and development, but
sometimes it can be a
barrier by not allowing
sports practitioners to
join professional
leagues, or by regarding
athletes who decide to
turn professional abroad
as unpatriotic traitors
who are not allowed to
compete for this
country," a sports
commentator who
requested anonymity told
IPS.
Fidel Castro, who called
on the Cuban delegation
to "come back with their
shield or on it," as in
classical Sparta, wrote
in one of his regular
Reflections newspaper
columns that "we should
never allow the traitors
to visit the country
showing off the luxury
obtained through
infamy."
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