Cuba opens to the emotions of those who know how to love; of those who go out onto the field, as if this were the scene of an Olympic Games or a world championship. Next Monday, teenagers and young people will be filling the fields, pools and slopes with their efforts.
The School Games, which are responsible for more than 90% of the Olympic, World, Pan-American, Central American and Caribbean titles, will dominate the entire Island.
There, the public is the people, mom and dad, siblings, friends from the neighborhood, or the first girlfriend. It is as if this fan base is also training to see him in the future in the great arenas of the highest level of the world; although some, like Julio César La Cruz’s mother, do not want to watch the fight of the man who, in Paris, is going for his third crown of laurels under the five rings.
«Imagine, when I went to my first national championship, almost leaving the Schools, and I saw Mercedes Pomares, I thought I had touched heaven. That’s why I always wanted to play with her number 4,” said the captain of the Morenas del Caribe, Mireya Luis, three-time Olympic volleyball champion.
Pay close attention, because in the 2032 or 2036 Olympic Games, the names that we narrators and journalists evoke today will be the ones we are going to applaud at those events.
Cuba is building its future by hosting these Games, just as it was able to build a sporting power from the first of these events in 1963, under Fidel’s founding premise: “You cannot conceive of a good athlete if he is not a good student, you cannot conceive of a good champion if he is not a good student.”
While the world has already seen the Olympic torch arrive in France, via the port of Marseille, to the site of the 33rd Games, on the largest island of the Antilles, a great Olympics will light its flame next Monday. If you want to experience an exciting story, look on the map to see which sports will be held in your province. You won’t regret it.
THE FIGURES OF THE SCHOOL CHILDREN
31 sports in competition.
9,000 participating athletes.
1,652 medals will be up for grabs.
15 locations throughout the country.
4 countries: Russia, Angola, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
