CDMX, Mexico-. A couple of weeks ago we presented a selection of feats of Cuban baseball players. But now we want to acknowledge various athletes from other disciplines that made history on the island. To do this we not only took into account their statistics and medals, but also what they meant for their disciplines.
Knowing how risky it can be to try to answer the question that gives the title to this note, we wanted to close the year with this selection.
This is the top 10 that we have prepared for you, without any pre-established order. If you have other suggestions you can add them in the comments.
1. Mijain Lopez
Mijaín at the Tokyo 2021 Olympics placed his name on the select list of four-time Olympic champions. After a performance that moved Cubans and wrestling lovers, “The Champion of Herradura” beat the Georgian Lakobi Kajaia in the final of the 130 kilos, and no points were scored. The bout ended 5-0, after two rounds.
Also a five-time world champion, he has not only gone down in history as one of the greatest Cuban athletes, but he is also at the top of his discipline as a legend. How has he done it? He has had in his favor not only his gruesome physique: 198 centimeters and 130 kilograms of muscle. Also his exquisite technique has made him unbeatable.
2.Jose Raul Capablanca
For six years, from 1921 to 1927, the Cuban chess player kept his crown as world chess champion. A game that had fascinated him since he was four years old when he learned, observing the technique of his father.
The Cuban Grand Master, nicknamed the Chess Machine or the King of Kings, accumulated a total of 302 wins, 246 draws and only 35 losses in his entire professional career.
The also Soviet world champion Mikhail Botvinnik He said about the genius: “It is impossible to understand the world of chess without looking at it with the eyes of Capablanca.”
Outside of the science game there are also interesting facts about his life that you may not know. Capablanca also served as Cuban ambassador, participated as an actor in the film Chess Fever (1925) and his second wedding fEU with a Russian princess, Olga Chagodaef.
3.Javier Sotomayor
At just fourteen years old, he already exceeded two meters, a preview of the glorious 2.45 meters he reached in 1993, in Salamanca, Spain. A record that no one has equaled until today and that is among the oldest in athletics.
The “Prince of the Heights” is not only among the best Cuban athletes but also among the best in this discipline in world history.
Sotomayor also won an Olympic title, in Barcelona 1992 and the silver medal in the summer event in Sydney 2000.
On the other hand, he achieved two world titles outdoors, in Stuttgart 1993 and Athens 1997 and four indoors, in Budapest 1989, Toronto 1993, Barcelona 1995 and Maebashi 1999. In 1993 he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Sports and was three times Pan American champion.
4.Kid Chocolate
Baptized as Eligio Sardiñas Montalvo, the boxer went down in history as Kid Chocolate. As a professional, Chocolate fought for the first time on March 3, 1928 and in his debut he knocked out José Sotolongo. He then left, along with his manager Luis Felipe Gutiérrez to the United States, the country where he obtained most of his successes. In the ring, the native of Havana from El Cerro won 136 fights, accumulated only 10 defeats and the same number of draws.
Kid started fighting very young to bring home money but his talent was such that he was crowned world champion in 1931 and 1932. He knocked out 44 boxers. He is considered among the top 10 featherweights of all time.
Boxing was him, as he used to say.
5. Rule Torres or Mireya Luis?
This has been a long debate. Which of these two spectacular women was superior to the other, if they both won three Olympics?
The tiny Camagüeyan, Mireya Luis, was a little over 1.70 meters tall and could exceed three meters in the jump and remained levitating. Her strength in the attack was amazing.
Also from the “Morenas del Caribe”, it is impossible not to admire Regla, the impressive 1.91 meter habanera. She won her first Olympic gold at the age of 17 and had the soul to lead and motivate her teammates on the court. She retired very young, when she could have done even more but injuries didn’t allow it. Regardless, the International Volleyball Federation named her as the best player in the world in the 20th century.
Here we will not choose one. Both are pride of Cuba.
6. Ramon Font
Together with Mijaín López, he is the only Cuban who had four Olympic medals around his neck. In addition, this fencer could not be missing from our list.
Known as “El Zurdo” or “El Nunca Segundo” he was the first Olympic medalist from Cuba and Latin America, for which he deserves a place among the best Cuban athletes of all time. The Havana-born fencer won the gold medal in the épée at the Paris 1900 Olympic Games and there he also won the silver medal in the épée modality for fencing masters.
Four years later, he participated in the III Games in San Luis, United States, where he won the individual titles in foil Y sworda.
He was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honor.
7. Theophilus Stevenson
The greatest amateur boxer is Cuban and his name was Teófilo Stevenson. If anyone doubts, remember that he won three Olympic crowns (Munich 1972, Montreal 1976 and Moscow 1980) and the same number of world titles. His punching power was superb and he seemed unbeatable in the ring. The only rival equal to him was the legendary Muhammad Ali.
In 1978, a series of bouts between Stevenson and Ali, who was the heavyweight champion of professional boxing, was discussed. However, that fight never happened and the result could not be known.
“He is the best among amateurs and I am among professionals, why fight?” the American said at the time. “Everything would have ended in a draw,” Teófilo assured for his part.
For two decades in the ring, Stevenson was virtually unbeatable. Of the 321 official fights he only lost 20.
8. Felix Savon
After Stevenson, there is Savón. The stellar Cuban boxer competed as an amateur in the 91 kilogram category. Like Teófilo, this athlete was also unbeatable.
Savón retired with three Olympic gold medals (Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996, Sydney 2000). He also stood on the top of the podium six times as a world champion. Similarly, he won three Pan American titles, four World Cups, and four Central American and Caribbean Games. He lacked nothing to achieve.
9. Driulis Gonzalez
In 1989 she becomes the youngest Cuban champion in history at just 15 years old and enters the national team, led by the unbeatable coach Ronaldo Veitia. That was the first step in his glorious sports career.
Considered the best judoka of the 20th century in America and one of the most complete on the planet of all time, Driulis participated in five Olympics and was on the podium in four of them. One gold, one silver and two bronze are the Olympic medals that she keeps.
At just 1.63 meters tall, he won gold in four Pan American Games and three Central American Games.
10. Ivan Pedroso
The Cuban long jump idol was born in 1972 in Santiago de Cuba.
Perdroso was an Olympic champion; nine times world champion (four outdoors and five indoors). He has also been crowned three times in the Pan American Games. He has an admirable winning record: he managed to remain unbeatable for almost 30 consecutive competitions.
The athlete could have set a world record with the 8.96 meters he reached in Sestriere in 1995, but the judges did not validate it because the wind could not be measured in his favor.
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