The prestigious Cuban women’s judo coach Ronaldo Veitíatrainer of champions of the specialty who have won 22 Olympic and 50 world medals, passed away this Monday at the age of 75 in Havanadue to a cerebrovascular accident that deteriorated his health.
“The beloved professor Ronaldo Veitía Valdivié passed away. His contribution to the greatness of Cuban women’s judo assures him a place of honor in the history of our sport.“Reported the president of the National Sports Institute (Inder), Osvaldo Vento Montiller, on his official Twitter profile.
“We share the pain with family and friends of this battling patriot and faithful to his principles“He added in his message.
Veitía, an emblematic figure of Cuban judo, had retired in 2014 and lived in Alicante, Spain. When he fell ill, he stayed in a hospital for more than two months before traveling to Cuba last October to continue his recovery.
“My condolences to family, friends and the sports movement of Cuba. Veitía leaves us forever the pleasant memory of the continuous and emotional victories of Cuban women’s judo. May your school never die,” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on Twitter.
“El Gordo”, as he was nicknamed for his great physical corpulence, was the head coach of the women’s judo team for more than 30 years and, among the multiple recognitions received in his sporting career, are the titles of Doctor Honoris Causa in Sciences of Physical Culture from the University of Matanzas, and that of Hero of Labor of Cuba.
To this is added that he was exalted to the Hall of Fame of the International Judo Federation in 2018 and, among his main triumphs, he accumulated 14 medals in the Olympic Games, including the crown for countries in Sydney 2000, the universal scepter in Japan 1995; and all the titles in the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata that same year.
Saying goodbye to her students in 2016, Veitía said that she was living “a historic momentthe greatest thing that might have happened to me, officially retiring with those moments of glory fresh in my memory, surrounded by several generations of my disciples, crowning a life for and for judo”.
The coach, considered one of the best in the world in his disciplinewas the teacher of athletes such as the four-time Olympic and eight-time world champion Idalys Ortiz, and the stars Estela Rodríguez, Legna Verdecia, Amarilis Savón, Daima Beltrán, Driulis González, Odalys Revé and Yurisleidis Lupetey.
Veitía started his career in 1963, when he was 15 years old.and although he was a national champion in the 93-kilogram division several times and a Pan-American medalist, his results as an athlete were not as relevant as his work as a coach.
Since the end of the sixties he began teaching and in 1986 he was promoted to head coach of the women’s national martial art team.
Among his contributions, he is credited with adapting the load in training, the plank exercise and the inclusion of weights that were prohibited for women at that time, but applied them with medical monitoring and scientific methods in the preparation.
Under his guidance, Estela Rodríguez was crowned the first Cuban judoka to win a world championship.in Belgrade 1989, and Odalys Revé won gold at the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games.
His pupils achieved first place by country in the Sydney 2000 Olympic event, the peak in the world championships in Japan (1995), and Egypt (2008); the highest place in the youth world championship in Dijon, France (1990), and the crown in the world team tournament in Minsk, Belarus (1998).
