The Cuban Olympic Committee (COC) today reiterated its “firm rejection” of the inclusion of Cuban athletes in the Refugee Olympic Team (ROT), calling it a “political manipulation” of sport.
The full COC statement, published by JITdemands the immediate expulsion of one of the two Cuban athletes from the EOR for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Cuban athletes Fernando Dayán, Jorge Enríquez and Ramiro Mora are part of the EOR, a team made up of athletes who have been “uprooted by war or persecution.” However, the COC maintains that these athletes do not meet these criteria.
The COC says it has been in communication with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since May 2024, expressing its concern and seeking a resolution. According to the COC, the inclusion of the Cuban athletes was done without its “consent” and with the aim of discrediting the Cuban sports movement.
Despite supporting the creation of the EOR in 2015 and having no objections to Cuban athletes residing in other countries, the COC considers that one of the EOR athletes has made political statements contrary to his country of origin, thus violating the Olympic Charter and IOC rules.
COC believes that one of the EOR athletes has made political statements contrary to his country of origin
“(…) one of the two athletes now included in the EOR has made disrespectful and fallacious political statements against his country, his people and the sports movement that allowed him to be an Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020 (…) IOC officials assured that the aforementioned athletes would not make statements of this nature.”
In a recent statement to the agency EFEFernando Dayán Jorge Enríquez mentioned the serious economic crisis in Cuba: “They wanted to take me to be part of the farce of the government and I didn’t want to. That’s why I deserted,” he said.
In the absence of a response from the IOC on this matter, the COC has decided to make its position public and demand the immediate expulsion of the athlete from the EOR for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
He insists that the IOC must comply with the principles of Olympism and the rules set for participants in the Olympic Games.
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