In the early hours of this Saturday, Cuban diver Luis Gustavo Cañabate Álvarez suffered an accident due to a fall at the “Giraldo Córdova Cardín” Higher Training School for High-Performance Athletes (Esfaar) and is hospitalized in critical condition, according to reported this Saturday the specialized portal JIT.
The note from the official website of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder) explains that a young athlete from Camagüey (he turned 19 a month ago) was immediately transferred to the “Luis Díaz Soto” Central Military Hospital (Naval), from where It was decided to refer him to the “Juan Manuel Márquez” Pediatric Teaching Hospital, where he has been reported as “multiple trauma in critical condition”, although he remains conscious.
The information does not specify under what circumstances the fall occurred, but we can infer that it was not in any diving practice, since everything happened in the early morning hours.
Directors from Esfaar, Inder, the Institute of Sports Medicine and discipline specialists have been with the athlete at the hospital facilities all the time, and his family is expected to arrive from Camagüey in the next few hours to accompany him.
“They will have the necessary conditions to be by their side”, points out the information from JIT, in which they assure that they will offer more details about the evolution and their condition through the medical reports and with the consent of their relatives.
Cañabate is one of the greatest diving talents in Cuba, who is seeking reintegration into the elite after the generational change in recent years. In 2021, he won the silver medal in the men’s individual platform during the Junior Pan American Games held in Cali-Valle, Colombia, where he also won gold in the mixed event along with Anisley García, Carlos Daniel Ramos and Laydel Domínguez.
In this 2022 he showed signs of constant progression by anchoring in the sixth position of the synchronized platform in the Senior World Championship in Budapest, Hungary. Cañabate was aiming to be one of Cuba’s main cards ahead of next year’s Central American and Pan American Games, but now all that is in the background: the essential thing is to save his life.
