HAVANA, Cuba.- In the first sale public of 2025 of Olympic medals won by Cuban athletes, the silver medal of the Cuban baseball team at the 2008 Beijing Games was purchased for $12,513 on Thursday night.
This medal had an estimated bid of $10,000 by the organizers of RR Auctionthe well-known Boston auction house.
On the evening of tenders There were also three other Cuban medals: the gold of the Guantanamo boxer Yuriorkis Gamboa in the 51 kg division of Athens 2004, the silver of the baseball of Sydney 2000, and a second metal of the same color and the same sport also from Beijing 2008.
Gamboa’s medal had appeared at the close of bidding at $10,909, out of an estimate of $15,000.
Open since December 12, the conteston its final night, resorted to the well-known “30 minute rule” between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time in the United States.
In none of the cases of the medals Cuban baseball clubs mentioned the names of the players to whom they had originally belonged. Generally the prizes are presented in the bidding through collectors.
Presumably unsold medals could now appear in the season’s next semi-annual auction in search of a better price.
In Sydney, the national team that succumbed to the USA, had Servio Borges as director, while in Beijing, where the executioner was South Korea, the manager was Antonio Pacheco.
Gamboa, whose gold was auctioned this week, decided to escape from the Cuban delegation in 2006 along with Odlanier Solís and Yan Barthelemy – also champions in Athens – during a training camp in Venezuela. They headed to Colombia and then to Germany, where they requested visas to enter the United States.
On December 31, 2022, he ran over a pedestrian – who ultimately died – while driving a rented car from Santiago de Cuba to his native province.
Last August, 18 months after his fatal accident, Gamboa himself announced on his social networks from Cuba that he had been acquitted. Since March 1, 2023, the former world champion was free on bail. Apparently the former ring star is still on the Island.
Throughout his career he has obtained 105 victories in 127 fights, 35 of them by knockout.
Gamboa Medal: Sold or Stolen?
Before completing his escape, Gamboa He had commented that he had sold his Olympic gold medal to support his family.
In 2014 in statements to The New Herald revealed that he had lost his medal in a robbery at his home in 2011, in Miami, and that some time later the International Olympic Committee had returned his award in the form of a replica after cumbersome formalities.
Gamboa’s opinions have not been known since the American house announced that his gold medal was among the offers in the open bidding since December 12. Last July RR Auction He sold the only Cuban taekwondo Olympic gold won by Ángel Valodia Matos in Sydney for more than $51,000.
There are already numerous Olympic decorations of all colors won by Cuban athletes auctioned by this American company and also by the electronic commerce company eBay, from San José, California.
Many of these medals from the “revolutionary era” were dedicated at the time to the late dictator Fidel Castro.
“If INDER decided to do a census of the Olympic medals held by athletes, there would be many more surprises,” he told Cubanet a former national team coach, now retired, on condition of anonymity.
