MADRID, Spain.- Although rhythmic gymnastics is not one of the sports that stand out in Cuba, at different times athletes have emerged who have reached the highest international level. Such is the case of Lourdes Medina, the best exponent of Cuban rhythmic gymnastics of all time.
Born in Havana in 1968, she dazzled at the 1987 Indianapolis and 1991 Havana Championships.
In Indianapolis he won five medals, three gold and two silver. She was champion as Maximum Accumulator where she obtained 38,580 points, and won in rings and clubs. In the ribbon and rope modalities, she took the silver medals. That year was the first time that rhythmic gymnastics was included in the Pan American Games, for which she became the first champion in the history of the continental championships as the highest accumulator and in the hoop and club implements. The Cuban even surpassed the American favorite Diana Simpson, who at that time was the world champion.
In 1991 with Cuba hosting the Pan American Games, Medina won four gold medals and one silver. She repeated as Maximum Accumulator (36,900 points) and also won gold in clubs, rope and ball. She in hoop she conquered the silver medal.
About her beginnings in this sport, the athlete story to Aldo Luberta Martínez: “My approach to rhythmic gymnastics happened almost by chance. One day my two sisters and I were playing and a lady approached my mom to ask about us. It was Professor Rosa Banderas, a trainer at the ‘Mariana Grajales’ center in Lawton. She noticed us and told mom to take us. (…) We started, I liked it, and in the 1976-1977 academic year I was recruited to train at the National Gymnastics School, where the Cuban pre-selection was concentrated”.
Between 1977 and 1981 he won 25 gold medals in the School Games. In 1981, at the age of 13, he joined the Cuban team; and she with 14 she was national champion.
Lourdes Medina retired after the 1991 Pan American Games, at the age of 23. After her retirement, she became a coach of the National Team.
The gymnast retired with the sadness of not having been able to compete in the Olympic Games, by decision of the Cuban Government, despite having qualified three times.
Cuba did not attend the Olympic Games in Los Angeles (1984) alleging security problems; Neither did those in Seoul (1988), out of solidarity with North Korea. While for those of Barcelona (1992) the island’s sports authorities considered that the athlete would not be able to place herself among the first.
“I always won my Olympic qualification in the three pre-Olympic World Cups that I attended. Among a total of 150 gymnasts from all over the planet, I was ranked in the top thirty. Why exclude me from the Catalan event, especially after not attending Los Angeles and Seoul? Geographic fatalism?” Said the athlete in a interview with Julia Osendi.
Lourdes Medina has lived in Miami since 2006 with her two daughters.
Receive information from CubaNet on your cell phone through WhatsApp. Send us a message with the word “CUBA” on the phone +525545038831, You can also subscribe to our electronic newsletter by giving click here.
