The Cuban delegation at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games ended its participation with “dissatisfaction” for not achieving its goal of finishing among the top 20 in the medal table, it lamented in a statement.
The island won two gold medals, one silver and six bronze medals (nine in total) to place 32nd. This is its lowest number of medals since Munich 1972, when it won eight.
Cuba also won its fewest gold medals since Beijing 2008, when it won three – it had a total of 30 on that occasion.
The country faced the Paris Games with 61 athletes in 16 sports, the smallest delegation since Tokyo 1964.
In its public statement after the end of the competition, the delegation acknowledged that the result in Paris “meant not fulfilling the goal of a place among the top 20, but even though more careful analysis remains to be done, it is necessary to confirm that there was no triumphalism in that aspiration.”
Half-satisfaction
However, he said that the delegation returned “with the satisfaction of having competed with dignity and adherence to the values of our sport,” even though “the results did not always yield the desired results.”
Cuba praised the performance of wrestler Mijaín López, who won his fifth gold medal at the Olympic Games in the 130 kg category, becoming the first athlete to achieve the feat consecutively in the same individual discipline.
He also highlighted the gold medal won by young boxer Erislandy Álvarez in the 63.5 kg category.
Boxing, traditionally the discipline that brings the most Olympic titles to Cuba, only won a gold medal with Álvarez, in addition to the bronze for Arlen López.
The Cuban statement said there is “dissatisfaction” with “below-expected performances, beyond the failure to win medals, particularly in sports with figures capable of winning them.”
Nationalizations
On the other hand, Cuba stressed that in Paris 2024 there were “phenomena” against it, such as what it considered “nationalizations based on results” with performances “forged under the protection of material and human resources outside their countries of origin.”
Twenty Cubans represented 13 different countries. Among them were the winners of the gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively, in the men’s triple jump: Jordan Díaz (Spain), Pedro Pichardo (Portugal) and Andy Díaz (Italy).
Before the start of the Olympics, Cuba called for the “immediate expulsion” of Cuban canoeist Fernando Dayán Jorge, champion in Tokyo 2020, who competed for the refugee team, because it considers that he made “disrespectful” and “fallacious” statements against his country.
Paris / EFE
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2024-08-17 06:19:09
