Cuba: where athletics legends are made part 3
In the third and final part of our series focusing on Cuban athletics, spikesmag.com took a trip down memory lane to catch up with the former double world-800m-champion Ana Fidelia Quirot. We discovered she's a busy bee…
Ana Fidelia Quirot was one of all-time great 800m athletes. The pugnacious Cuban landed the 800m silver medal at the 1991 World Championships and the following year she won Olympic bronze.
In 1993, however, she was the victim of a horrific domestic accident when a kerosene cooker exploded in her kitchen and left her fighting for her life. Pregnant at the time, she gave birth to a daughter prematurely, which did not survive. Quirot’s body suffered almost 40 per-cent third-degree burns but she defied medical experts to return to sport as an even stronger athlete.
Quirot went on to land successive world titles in 1995 and 1997. She also won an Olympic silver medal in the 1996 Atlanta Games. Her personal best of 1:54.44 set in 1989 still stands fourth on the all-time list for the women’s 800m. Now, aged 46, she has a ten-year-old daughter, Karla Fidelia, and an eight-year-old son, Alberto Alejandro.
Hi Ana, what you are up to today?
AQ: I thought when my sporting career was over things would be calmer but in fact it has been quite the opposite because I’ve always been very involved and very busy – not only in sport but outside of sport, too. I am now in my third mandate as a member of the Cuban parliament and as a member of the medical and health commission, so i'm kept very busy.
As far as my work in the health and the sports department goes I’m working with all the municipal councils. That consists a lot on listening to what the people have to say, or on the sports side, listening to athletes, the sports centres and the high performance schools. I am also visiting hospitals, clinics, cemeteries and funerals and reporting back to the responsible authorities.
Has the discipline and skills you learned as an athlete been helpful for life outside sport?
AQ: Yes, sport helped me very much. Sport forms a person’s character and without this determination and discipline you can’t go anywhere in life. Sport has helped me persevere and meet my goals and objectives. This has stayed with me in my personal life – people ask, ‘How come you have stopped your career and you are still so fit?’ And I say, ‘because I still have this desire and vigour that I had as an athlete.’
I still do sport when I’m travelling. The first thing I pack is my sports kit and if there is a gym in the hotel, I workout. Otherwise I run in the street. But I am following what the doctors say about reducing activity after your sporting career is over.
Do you get as big a thrill from your work as you did when competing as an athlete?
AQ: (laughs) This is a very difficult question because sport was my job for a large part of my life. I always feel nostalgic when I watch in the stadium and on the TV. I’m naturally very nervous when I see my event. On the other hand you need to set yourself objectives and, after my sporting life, I’ve done that through being a mother. I was very disciplined as an athlete and this is what has helped me.
What were you given from the state after your success?
AQ: Most of us do receive an apartment or a car. Almost all of us have some recognition like this, but we sometimes have to wait. The house I received for my success was worth US$3000. If you put that into Cuban currency it’s not a lot but it is a nice comfortable house in a nice residential area – it would have cost a fortune in any other country.
I’m a member of our athletes’ commission and this takes care of the health of former champions and their families. If the family needs repairs to the house or a new electrical appliance they look after it.
You married an Italian, so were you ever tempted to live in another country?
AQ: I could never leave my country. They are a lot of people who defect but they don’t look at all the sacrifices the government has made to give them an opportunity for a sporting career. Like free education, for example. In other countries this would cost a lot of money. Here we get it for free.