INDER favors hiring abroad because athletes need to leave the Island to have access to better facilities.
14ymedio, Madrid, 11 July 2025 — Cuban sport apparently assumes that it will not attend the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The statements of the first vice president of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), Raúl Fornés, delve into a thesis already advanced by the Cuban Volleyball Federation (FCV) when, at the end of June, the US denied visas to the players of the national team. “If the US government maintains its policy of denying visas, as it has been doing by preventing us from attending competitions on its territory, we will simply not go and will do other things. It wouldn’t be the first time. We already missed Los Angeles in 1984; that city is unlucky for us,” he told Cubadebate.
The official gave an extensive interview to the official media on the eve of the approval, in the National Assembly next week, of the new sports law. He breaks down some of the novelties of the regulation, saying he will try to recover a splendor that is in the past, after ranking fifth in medals won by Cuban athletes at Barcelona 1992. The results, if he is successful, would be noticeable in Brisbane 2032, because – admits the official – he will have to go to Los Angeles with what there is. If he can.
“We’re focusing on it, training to be back among the top countries in the world”
“We are fully prepared to attend. We are focusing on it, training to be back among the top countries in the world. It’s a difficult and complex goal, but it’s our intention,” he said, settling the issue.
The new policy is based mainly on an increase in training in two areas: recruitment abroad and the recovery of the Higher Schools for Athletic Development (ESPA), which were deactivated in 2010.
Fornés says that this measure was an error of astronomical proportions whose results have very concrete figures. “We were losing about 1,500 talents every year. Every year. About 1,500. These are not invented or preliminary numbers: they’re concrete.” The official says that once athletes finish their training at the School of Sports Initiation (EIDE), they have only two paths: join a national team or leave the sport. The ESPA schools were a natural link for young people from 18 years of age to adapt to professionalization, but their elimination has led them to a change of paradigm.
The new regulation will seek to “rebuild a training system that respects the natural processes of athletic development, avoiding abrupt leaps”
“We have already seen that this method does not always give good results; it happened to us and today is costing us dearly. Now we are going to rescue it; we intend to save it,” he said, pointing out that the new regulation will help “to rebuild a training system that respects the natural processes of athletic development, avoiding abrupt leaps which have proved counter-productive.”
Another fundamental point of the new policy is recruitment abroad, which Fornés has explained in detail, with special emphasis on the fact that INDER does not keep any remuneration corresponding to the athlete. “The athletes receive 100% of the contract and income. The Federation receives nothing from that part. What it does negotiate with the club that hires the athlete is between 10% and 20% for training rights,” he explained. The official mentioned this practice, common in many sports – among which is soccer, approved by FIFA – for which the club or federation that has invested years in the development of an athlete receives compensation.
“That’s something I wanted to clarify, because I know there is a lot of talk about it. Some think that the athletes contribute part of their salary, but that’s not true,” he remarked, avoiding comparisons with Cuban doctors on international missions, from whose salaries the government subtracts up to 90%, “to contribute to the health system,” it claims.
The balance towards the competitive result in international events is not yet up to par
According to the official, this system has worked well since it began to be implemented, but the results do not fully satisfy the authorities. “We have grown in the hiring of athletes and have improved the quality of many we hired, but the balance towards the competitive result in international events is still not up to par at this time. We continue to project; we are not going to give up,” he says. The scope of the shortages on the Island is such, argues Fornés, that it is necessary for athletes to leave Cuba to have access to better facilities, the appropriate technology and even competitive rivals.
The situation of the facilities is now in the eye of the hurricane after photos of some training centers went viral, including those of an EIDE facility, practically in ruins. “When I entered in 1997, in the middle of the Special Period, it was a hundred times better than now, 28 years later,” said INDER teacher Adriana Lazaga, regretting the oblivion to which athletes are subjected.
“Our best facilities date back to 1991, and even those no longer meet current requirements,” says Fornés in the interview. The official explains that the sports equipment industry, which was central to grassroots sport, is also among the many things that have collapsed. “That too must be admitted as an accumulated reality. For more than eight years, almost nine, we have been unable to guarantee basic sports resources for the teams,” he admitted.
There are currently 37 high performance sports in Cuba, something that is “impossible to maintain properly”
Since the means are not enough, and although the authorities have promised that the legislation will be accompanied by an economic endowment – which in the midst of the crisis is hard to believe – a very relevant point of the new sports policy will be the “prioritization” of disciplines. Currently, there are 37 high performance sports in Cuba, something that is “impossible to maintain adequately,” especially “when the elite of the world do not all receive medals, which is what ultimately positions Cuba internationally.”
The authorities will therefore focus their efforts on sports that have recently yielded results. “Today we are clearly establishing which sports will be prioritized; basically, those that place Cuba among the medalists of the Central American, Pan American and Olympic Games. These will receive real and consistent attention throughout their development pyramid,” said Fornés, without specifying a list, which should include wrestling, boxing, judo, taekwondo and athletics.
“If skating has never been practiced in Guantánamo, we cannot force them to skate”
As part of the strategy, the “regionalization principle” will also be used. “That is to say, a new concept, a new dimension.” For example, “If in Guantánamo, let’s say, skating has never been practiced, we cannot force them to practice skating nor tell them that ’you have to enroll in skating’.” The same applies to extremely expensive sports, such as hockey, which will have to remain in quarantine for lack of budget.
In recent years, Cuba has lost hundreds of athletes who prefer to try to make a living off the Island, which has decimated the teams and, consequently, the successes of national sport. The report of Cubadebate ends with the experiences of some hired abroad. In their messages, it is well understood why the number of athletes decreases, as happens in almost all professions. Some cite technical issues in their disciplines, but others measure the depth of the problem, like this statement by pitcher Liván Moinelo, who, speaking about the conditions, celebrates that in Japan, where he competes, “they have baseballs.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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