In addition, 62 Cubans who remain with the State will participate in the Olympics.
14ymedio, Havana, 13 July 2024 — Twenty-one Cuban athletes who have emigrated will participate – with flags from other countries or on the refugee team – in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will begin on July 26. Among the flags that the athletes from the Island will show are those of Spain, the United States, Chile, Portugal, Canada, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Belgium, Poland, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Turkey and Italy. Of the emigrants, three hope for gold in athletics.
Triple jumper Pedro Pichardo – who left his delegation in the German city of Stuttgart – will play for Portugal, for which he won gold in Tokyo 2020 with a record jump of 17.98 meters. Triple jumper Jordan Díaz Fortún, who “deserted” in 2021 in Spain, will play with the red flag and carry with him the prestige of having achieved the third best mark in history, with a triple jump of 17.98 meters. Finally, Andy Díaz, who achieved a jump of 17.61 meters in the Copernicus Cup and has not played for Cuba since 2021, will represent Italy.
There will be three emigrant boxers. Javier Ibáñez, who left Cuba in 2018, will enter the 57-kilogram category for Bulgaria. Last May he was crowned European champion by the International Boxing Association, and won the silver medal at the 2024 European Championship and the gold medal at the 2023 European Games.
Enmanuel Reyes (“The Prophet”) traveled to Spain in 2016 and plays for that country for the second time in the Olympics. After a defeat against his compatriot Julio César La Cruz in Tokyo, he told the Olympics portal that “my goal is to win the gold medal in Paris 2024.” Loren Berto Alfonso, who has won medals for Azerbaijan since 2019, won the bronze medal in Tokyo 2020. The boxer arrives at the Parisian event with bronze in the European Championship in Belgrade (2024) and silver in the World Championship in Uzbekistan (2023).
Yulenmis Aguilar will compete in javelin throwing. She won a gold medal at the beginning of July in Spain and was champion in 2015 and 2017. She received her Spanish naturalization papers in 2020.
Volleyball player Wilfredo León will defend Poland
Volleyball player Wilfredo León will defend Poland. The athlete from Santiago, who escaped in 2013, plays offense on that country’s team. For his part, the outside hitter Yoandy Leal, who became a naturalized Brazilian, between 2010 – the last year he defended Cuba – and 2020, won 25 titles with the volleyball club Sada Cruzeiro. In addition, he won three club world championships (2013, 2015 and 2016), three South American championships and five editions of the Super League.
Melissa Vargas leads Turkey’s women’s volleyball team, considered by the Olympics portal as the best in the world. Vargas was chosen in 2023 as the most valuable player on her team, Fenerbahçe Opet, and in 2024 she dominated the women’s ranking worldwide.
Ismael Romero won his ticket to the Olympics with the Puerto Rico basketball team. The Cuban was key for that team to return to the event after 20 years of absence.
In freestyle wrestling, Frank Chamizo will defend Italy. The athlete left the Island in 2011 and won bronze in Rio de Janeiro 2016. In the European Championship he won bronze in Bucharest (2024) and silver in Zagreb (2023). For his part, the Greco-Roman fighter Yasmani Acosta arrived in Santiago de Chile in 2015 and participated in Tokyo 2020. He won bronze in the Pan American Championship (2022) and the Pan American Games (2023).
Wrestler Néstor Almanza Jr. left the Island to settle in Chile in 2020 and that same year won the national championship. The athlete became a Chilean citizen in December 2022. Two years later he won a place in the Olympic Games and became the youngest athlete from Chile to achieve it.
Judoka María Celia Laborde, who fled in 2014, will play for the United States in the competition
Judoka María Celia Laborde, who escaped in 2014, will defend the United States in the competition. In 2022 she won the American national title, the African Open of Tunisia and the Pan American Open of Santo Domingo. For her part, Ana Laura Portuondo-Isasi will arrive in Paris with the Canadian team. Before doing so, she took the silver in the Pan American Judo Championship (2024).
Fencer Neisser Loyola achieved his qualification in the Olympic Games, with the flag of Belgium, after winning the World Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia, last March. The athlete, who left the Island at the age of 16, also won the silver medal in the Doha Grand Prix (2023).
Sailor Pedro Luis Fernández Jr. is another of the hopes for Puerto Rico – where he arrived in 2008 – in the Parisian capital. As for the hurdler Yasmani Copello, he will compete for Turkey. In Rio 2016, he won the bronze. He has been champion and runner-up in the editions of Amsterdam 2016 and Berlin 2018.
The refugee team will be formed by the canoeist Fernando Dayán Jorge Enríquez, gold medal in canoeing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and Ramiro Mora, weightlifting champion resident in the United Kingdom, where he worked in a circus before achieving the British record in the 89 and 96 kilograms categories.
In addition, 62 Cubans who remain with Cuba will participate in the Olympics, a figure that says a lot about the state of Cuban sport, since it is the smallest delegation that the Island has sent to this event since Tokyo 1964. Still attached to the Cuban Athletics Federation – which will send 19 athletes to the games – Juan Miguel Echevarría will not go to the event because he does not meet the qualifying requirements. Nor did Shainer Rengifo, who was injured last June and fled during an event in Spain this Thursday.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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