Cuba: where athletics legends are made
Cuba is among the world track and field elite. In the first instalment of our three part series we take a look at the flourishing sports system in Cuba and its positive impact on athletics.
Think of some of the world’s great track and field nations and the likes of the USA, Kenya and Jamaica will no doubt spring to mind. Some may also think of the traditional European powerhouses such as Russia and Germany, but right up there at the top of global athletics has been the Caribbean island of
Cuba – a country that for the past three decades or so has consistently produced some of the world’s top track and field athletes.
Alberto Juantorena, Alejandro Casanas, Javier Sotomayor, Ana Quirot, Anier Garcia and Ivan Pedroso are just a few names from Cuba’s past – all of whom sit proudly among some of the all-time greats in the sport.
Dayron Robles, Osleidys Menendez and Yargelis Savigne represent their current generation of high-fliers and Cuba’s impressive eight-medal haul at last summer’s IAAF World Junior Championships suggest the future is in good hands, too (only four nations claimed more medals in Bydgoszcz last year).
Many reasons have been suggested for their consistent success. Yet ask any Cuban and they will always tell you it is down to their fantastic school structure – it is hard to disagree.
Cuba remains one of the few remaining socialist countries and what its citizens may lack in individual wealth is compensated in other areas; education and health care are free – its literacy rate is higher than many western nations and its infant mortality rate lower than the USA – and interlinked is a collective desire to raise the health of the nation through sport.
Cuba's modern sporting success can be directly linked to when Fidel Castro came to power in 1959 – and four years later its twin structure was first implemented.
On one hand there is a drive for sports participation --
all children have to do up to six hours of sport a week at school -- and on the other is the need for sporting excellence, as illustrated by their powerful sporting school structure.
It begins at elementary schools as the island’s children across the 14 provinces are given the early opportunity to understand the different track and field events and to compete in the National Games.
Juantorena, the 1976 Olympic 400m and 800m champion and now the vice-minister of sport for Cuba, fully supports the system that he believes it has been critical factor in their success.
“Track and field forms the spinal cord of our programme,” he says.
“From first grade through to university there is a chance for the child to learn all the track and field skills. We do not like early specialisation and encourage all our children to run, jump and throw. At aged five to nine it is important that the child learns to play first.”
At primary school children are encouraged to try at least three sports with access to top-flight competition and specialist technical training and then -- with the support of their parents -- they can undergo a series of tests to win the right to attend the country’s 15 specialist sports schools.
One such school in Havana, the Giraldo Cordova Cardin, is one of the nation’s most famous. But Giraldo Sotolongo, the deputy director of sports training, is keen to stress that the school existed to give its students a well-rounded experience.
“We have more than 1100 students here but if their academic performance is not good then we have to go back to their province and wait for a second chance at the national championships,” says Sotolongo. “The main objective is for them to be ready for life outside, once their athletics career is over.”
Breakfast, lunch and dinner as well as basic accommodation, teaching materials and clothing are all provided for free at an undisclosed cost by the Cuban government.
Yet sport remains central to its core.
Students undertake two or three training sessions a day and more than 170 coaches are on hand to support the sports students at Cordova Cardin. It also offers the opportunity to develop sports teachers and the majority of Cuba’s elite sports stars – such as Robles, Garcia and boxer Felix Savon have come through this system.
However,
although the structure and system may be rock solid – the facilities are not what many western athletes would be used to.
When spikesmag.com was given a tour of Cordova Cardin, it was greeted by a bumpy, dusty 400m grass track and a very rudimentary throwing circle.
“We don’t have very sophisticated sports facilities, they are very humble,” admits Juantorena.
“With these limitations we have to substitute the relay baton with a wooden stick or put two sticks in the ground with a rope across to create the hurdle. Our strength lies in the preparation of our personnel from the technical and psychological point of view.
“We have more than 1600 track and field coaches around the country and about 78,000 physical education teachers involved in this programme.
“We know the methodology of sport performance and this is what makes Cuba so strong. The benefit for sport and society in general cannot be denied and this (track and field) is the basis for every human activity,” he says.
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Look out for part two in a series on Cuban athletics tomorrow.
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