AREQUIPA, Peru – The first vice president of the National Sports Institute, Raúl Fornés, said on Thursday that the goal of the Cuban delegation at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games is to win at least 10 medals.
In statements given to the state agency Latin PressFornés said that the island’s representatives intend to equal the four gold medals won in Tokyo 2020 and surpass the six in total won in the Japanese competition to reach at least 10.
According to the director, the sport with the most options for Cuba is para-athletics, historically the discipline that brings the most medals to the country, although there are possibilities in para-taekkondo of winning some medals.
He also mentioned para-weightlifter Pablo Ramírez, who has had good results in recent competitions; sport shooting with its three representatives; and para-judoka Sheila Hernández, second in the world ranking in the 70 kilograms, J2 category.
Fornés referred to the importance of reaching ten of medals in a context of “complex circumstances for preparing athletes for the Paralympic cycle caused by the pandemic and the country’s complex economic situation.”
Although the vice president avoided pointing out another of the core problems of sport in Cuba, the flight of athletes as part of the migration crisis, he took the opportunity to emphasize that the Paralympic field is in good health, “although there is still a lot of work to be done.”
However, despite the aspirations of the Cuban regime authorities, the numbers have not accompanied the Island in these Paris 2024 games. Before the Olympic event began at the end of last July, the official discourse also predicted positions in the medal table that never materialized.
The collapse of the Cuban state sports system, one of the pillars of the regime’s propaganda, occurred in Paris 2024, where the Cuban delegation won only 9 medals and two gold titles.
Only the fifth gold medal at the Olympic Games for the star Mijaín López and the gold medal for Erislandy Álvarez in boxing saved the Cuban delegation from leaving Paris without titles, something that would have to go back to Mexico 68, where the Cubans won four silver medals.
Since that meeting, the island’s delegations have always been above both titles.
As for the number of medals, to see such a poor performance by the Cubans one would have to go back to Munich 72, where the Cubans collected 8 medals, although 3 of them were gold.
The Cuban delegation is thus left behind the official forecasts that predicted 5 gold medals.
Before the Games, Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel had referred to the forecast as “conservative” and proposed that it be revised because Cuban athletes could “overcome it.”
“I am convinced of the potential of sport in Cuba and that its representatives will continue to bring joy to the people,” said Díaz-Canel in statements that confirm his disconnection from the reality of Cuban sport.
