Three of the four best triple shooters of the season are Cubans. The best records of the year—an Olympic year, too—came from the stretched legs of three athletes trained in high performance on the island, in the midst of shortages and scarcity of implements and food.
Cuba has an inexhaustible talent of athletes, fortunately for Europe and the rest of the world, because it cannot be said that they only leave the island for first world countries.
At this minute, the Cuban athlete doesn’t care about Spain, Chile or El Salvador. There is a future anywhere, except in the land where they were born.
Regarding this week’s duel in the triple jump final of the European Athletics Championships based in Rome and the highlight of two Cubans (Jordan Díaz for Spain and Pedro Pablo Pichardo for Portugal), many fans commented on the sadness of seeing them shine on the ground unaffiliated.
The fault does not lie with the athletes nor with the countries that welcome them knowing that they have a unique talent. It would be very foolish to aim for that.
You cannot aspire to more in a country where for years performance has not been valued and excellence is rewarded with cardboard diplomas, a photo of Fidel Castro dying of laughter and a hand of bananas. Nobody eats with those prizes and athletes have families and personal desires.
From year to year you could get the Russian roulette of a “modern car”, which more than a gift is a burden in a country where lines for gasoline occupy five blocks due to the current fuel shortage.
When Havana native Jordan Díaz escaped from a sports delegation on June 28, 2021 at the Madrid-Barajas Airport, he not only left behind the opportunity to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, but also gave up hugging his family for several years, as “punishment” for the abandonment they impose from the island.
For this reason, at the end of each competition, whether things go well or badly, he goes out to call his family in Havana.
After winning gold in the European Athletics Championships, with a jump of 18.18 meters—the third best jump in the history of the discipline—he snatched his coach Iván Pedroso’s cell phone and called his father.
«Whenever I finish competing they are the first people I call; Whether it turned out good or bad, I always call them,” he told the magazine. Relief.
Shortly after, his father from Havana recounted the nervousness he experienced from afar and without a live broadcast, he could only be guided by social networks.
«I knew I was there to do it [una marca grande], but I didn’t think that much (…). I hope he gives many more triumphs to the country that welcomed him like a son,” confessed the father of the young Spanish triple jump star.
Jordan, like hundreds of other Cuban athletes, would have loved to continue competing for his flag and for his country of origin, to be with his family and continue in the neighborhood, with his usual friends.
But without a future, they don’t have to ask anyone to sacrifice themselves or commit “suicide” by staying for nothing. He himself recognized it in an interview.
«It is very difficult to leave what you have experienced to go and improve your life, it is a bit sad. Who wouldn’t want to represent their country of birth? Sport for me is everything and when you see that you have no future… Sport is very short and you have to make the most of it,” she confessed.
The merit does not belong solely to Jordan, because behind the historic leap that places him as the great favorite for gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics is another Cuban, coach Iván Pedroso, long jump legend.
It is a topic that we discussed in the column this year, when we assured that molding talents abroad was the desire or only way out for hundreds of talented coaches on the island. The causes? Those that lead millions of Antilleans to live outside their land.
What is coming in a few weeks in the French capital will not be for the faint of heart with Jordan in his best moment, with Pichardo “stung” because the title was taken from him and with the return of Andy Díaz – the Cuban nationalized Italian who did not make it to time to Rome, but it will arrive in Paris.
«What I have done today will be of no use. In the Olympics there are many high-level athletes and everyone is preparing for war (…), it is going to be the biggest competition in history,” Jordan told the newspaper. The Spanish.
While the world sees Cuban athletes shine under other colors, the light does not save Cuba, which continues to accumulate athletes in dribs and drabs for what will surely be the most emaciated Olympic delegation in its history.
THE TOUCH IT IS A CREATION SPACE OPEN TO DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW. THIS MATERIAL RESPONDS TO THE OPINION OF ITS AUTHOR, WHICH DOES NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE EDITORIAL POSITION OF THE MEDIA.
