World-class athletes such as Mijaín López, Idalys Ortiz, Julio César La Cruz, Arlen López, Luis Orta, Yarisleidis Cirilo and Leuris Pupo lead the Cuban contingent participating in this year’s Olympics in Paris.
Throughout Olympic history, Cuba has accumulated 84 gold medals, 69 silver medals and 82 bronze medals, which place it at the top of Ibero-America.
With 61 competitors, across 16 sports, the first challenge is to increase that record and to stay in the top 20 nations on the medals table.
The team are 34 men and 27 women, of which 28 are participating for the first time, 6 are gold medallists and 7 have won other medals at the Olympics. Athletics leads the contingent with 18 participants, followed by wrestling (10), boxing (5), judo (4) and shooting sports (4).
In addition the Cuban team includes participants in these sports: canoeing (3), table tennis (3), diving (2), swimming (2), rowing (2), taekwondo (2), beach volleyball (2), archery (1), cycling (1), modern pentathlon (1) and weightlifting (1).
The Cuban boxer Julio César La Cruz, double gold medallist, led the team as the bearer of the national flag during the opening ceremony on Friday 26 July, alongside multi-medallist in Judo Idalys Ortiz.
Wrestler Mijain Lopez, was arriving later in Paris. He has declared this Olympics to be his last and hopes to win the gold for the fifth time.
Based on report by CubaDebate.cu in spanish
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