HAVANA, Cuba.- The news took milliseconds to travel around the world: three Cuban-born athletes conspired to top the podium in the Olympic triple jumpbut curiously none of them did so on behalf of the island delegation.
As you read: the champion Jordan Diaz competed for Spain; runner-up Pedro Pablo Pichardo defended the flag of Portugal; and Andy Díaz, who occupied third place, was in contention for Italy. The irony could not be more subtle: the only one who jumped with the jersey of the Island, Lázaro Martínez, finished in eighth place in the classification.
Although it was considered pre-competition by a few, the event still had a huge impact. Full medals are becoming increasingly rare at the highest level, to the point that perhaps the fingers of one hand can be enough to count those achieved in the last half century of summer competitions.
I remember, for example, the one achieved by the United States in the long jump at Barcelona’92. The one achieved by Jamaica in the 200 metres at London 2012. The ones achieved by the Kenyans in the 3000 metres steeplechase on three occasions. Few others have taken place on the track and in the open field. the five rings.
This Friday’s event is sui generis. Perhaps even a unique case in Olympic history. Jordan, Pichardo and Andy achieved a full house of Cubans, BUT not for Cuba.
The first is the youngest of the three (23 years old), and there are some voices that predict that he will end up breaking the very old world record of 18.29 meters set in 1995 by the British Jonathan Edwards. The boy defected in Spain during an event in 2021 and is coached by a legend who was also born in Cuba, Ivan Pedroso.
Pichardo, on the other hand, is the oldest (31) and the one with the most experience. He has triumphed in World Championships and Olympics, holds the current Cuban record, and his escape occurred in 2017 after having disagreements with the domestic federation. His father still trains him, something that INDER vetoed at the time.
Finally, Andy (28) also left his native country in 2021, and in Italy he has become a character thanks to the former triple jumper Fabrizio Donato, who took third place in the aforementioned event hosted by the English capital.
Yesterday’s event in Paris, as expected, raised hackles that the national press tried to console with the argument that they had all been trained in the so-called Cuban Triple Jumping School. And it was true. Each one became an elite jumper at the Pan American Stadium in Havana. What the reporters did not dare to list were the reasons why they decided to emigrate.
The point is that it is not enough to discover talent and make it grow physically and technically. After that – and this is what is forgotten in an overwhelming percentage of cases – when athletes begin to report victories, it is necessary to ensure that they live above the standards of a decent existence. That, and allowing them to be themselves, without straitjacketing them as spokespersons for political ideas.
Jordan Díaz: “In Cuba, it was a different style; they put a lot of pressure on you. Everything was based on a demand that didn’t always go well; they put pressure on you in everything. In the end, the peace of mind you have here is reflected when you do something wrong and you know that the consequences are not going to be more negative than having a bad result. Training like this means that in the long run, the results end up coming.”
The three men who have just climbed onto the Olympic podium in the triple jump left Cuba precisely in search of that “tranquility”, translated into an environment conducive to training and future prospects of a comfortable existence. As Pichardo recounted some time ago, he even slept in the stands of the stadium and was given “a bit of bread with coffee: I couldn’t stand it any more.”
This detail was overlooked by the Cuban media ‘specialists’, cleverly determined to see only the tip of the iceberg. But it is so important that right now it is the main reason why Cuba, having the three medalists of the event on its birth certificates, cannot boast of any of its medals in its showcase.
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