SPORTS-CUBA: Early Initiation and Heavy Investment Key to Success

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Sep 10 2001 (IPS) - Even in difficult economic times, Cuba continues its campaign to promote sports among young children, an approach that allows top-level coaches to spot athletes who have talent and perhaps a chance at becoming a world champion.

Cuban experts and authorities alike agree that sports are “a right of the people” and this attitude has been key in the victories this island nation has racked up over the past decades.

At the Pan-American Games, celebrated every four years since 1951, Cuba has collected 649 gold, 454 silver and 407 bronze medals.

In a century of Olympic Games (1896-1996), Cuba has brought home 44 gold, 32 silver and 31 bronze medals, far ahead of Latin America’s other leading medal-winners, Argentina (11, 12 and 15, respectively) and Brazil (11,13 and 27).

At the most recent Olympics, held in Sydney, Australia, last year, Cuba came in ninth overall in the medal tally, with 11 gold, 11 silver and seven bronze, with other countries of the region ranked far behind, including Mexico (one, two and three medals, respectively), Brazil (six, six and six), and Argentina (two silver and two bronze).

And this year, at the Eighth World Championship in Athletics (Track and Field), held last month in Edmonton, Canada, the Cubans – Iván Pedroso (long jump), Osleidys Menéndez (javelin) and Yipsi Moreno (hammer throw) – claimed three of the six gold medals won by the athletes from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Cuba’s national Children’s Athletic Games, which are held here annually a week after the end of the school year, give sports recruiters a chance to spot the young athletes with greatest talent.

In August, 8,511 children (5,243 boys and 3,268 girls) participated in the various events organised by the Education Ministry and by National Institute of Sports and Recreation (INDER) at seven different locations throughout the socialist-run island.

“In these competitions it is possible to see a real slice of the potential” that will be developed with sights on the Olympic Games of 2008 and 2012, observed one sports commentator.

The Fidel Castro government has an annual budget of 130 million dollars for the national athletics system that covers the gamut from sports in Cuban schools to training for the country’s top athletes.

But the core issue is one of conception, says José Ramón Fernández, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC) and vice- president of the Council of Ministers. It means taking an integral approach, it is not a mere matter of money, he told IPS.

Nevertheless, the official acknowledged that the training of each major athlete of Pedroso’s calibre – four-time world champion in the high jump – “requires an outlay of tens of thousands of dollars.”

The sports in which Cuba has excelled include track and field, baseball, boxing, judo, weightlifting and volleyball, among others.

“For us, high-performance sports are a by-product of popular sports, which are the source of our champions,” said Fernández.

The foundations of the system have been in place since the 1960s, when the Castro government created INDER, which is in charge of planning and implementing all programmes related to physical education and training in specific sports.

Thus arose the technical training institutions for sports- related teachers and coaches, and schools for introduction to specific sports and for further athletic training, with branch facilities throughout the country.

At the peak of this hierarchy is the High Performance Centre, located in Cerro Pelado in Havana, and considered the “champion factory.”

Because of the high demand for its services, several of the nearly 30 sports disciplines have had to relocate, such as baseball, boxing, football and swimming.

Though they remain within the jurisdiction of the High Performance Centre, the athletes train outside of the Cerro Pelado headquarters, which has an array of playing fields and sports infrastructure and housing for 230 people.

COC chief Fernández reports that the high performance centres are currently training some 2,300 athletes.

“They include the national teams and the alternates who compete in the Central American Games, the Pan-American Games, the Olympics and other world championships,” he said.

“Anyone who wants to and has talent can go far, because their training will not cost them a cent. If it had been otherwise, I would not have been able to develop as an athlete,” stated Ana Fidelia Quirot, two-time world champion in the 800 meter dash.

If Cuba is to keep up its long history of athletic victories, the government must seek ways to alleviate the impact of the economic crisis on the sports sector. Financial hard times began in the early 1990s following the fall of the Soviet Union and the European socialist bloc, which were Cuba’s main trade partners.

The company Cubadeportes S.A. appeared in the first half of the past decade. The enterprise takes in substantial revenues for services that Cuban coaches and trainers provide athletes in countries throughout Latin America, Europe and Asia.

This entity also promotes sports competitions within the island nation and encourages foreign athletes to visit the sports centres here.

The Cuban athletes themselves are expected to contribute part of the prize-money obtained at international competitions to the national sports system. “All the funds collected go towards the Cuban sports movement,” assured Fernández.

In his opinion, this form of giving demonstrates “the patriotic spirit of Cuban athletes,” who sometimes donate the full amount of their awards on a totally voluntary basis, he said.

“Sports, for us, should be based on a patriotic feeling, defending the flag of our country,” said the official, a tacit rejection of the athletes who, tempted by a lucrative professional sports career abroad, have opted to emigrate from the island.