The Olympic champion in the javelin throw in Athens 2004, Osleydis Menéndez, left the island and has been in the United States since Sunday. this matanzara counted this tuesday to CyberCuba who left through Santiago de Cuba heading for Jamaica and from there took the route to Nicaragua, “an infernal journey that I will never forget”.
Menéndez arrived in Miami empty-handed but with the firm intention of becoming a coach and “being able to work under good conditions to achieve results like the ones I had in my specialty.”
The javelin throw specialist and also holder of the world titles in Edmonton 2001 and Helsinki 2005, said that after her retirement “they did not give her any value” and she felt “discriminated against” on the Island. “They underestimated my humility, my way of be”.
He regretted that the exodus of “figures” is now “so common” that nobody notices it. “You give your whole life, you put the name of your sport and your country at the top and when you retire, the glory is kept at home.”
“I endured verbal abuse going through adverse weather conditions, both intense heat and great cold, without bathing”
The athlete joins the statistics of Cuban athletes who arrive in the United States. A few days ago it was confirmed that Christian Solenzal, the fighter who defected in Mexico last May, was already in Lexington, Kentucky. In March it was announced that the Olympic canoe champion, Jorge Enriquezmanaged to cross the Mexican border after being detained in a migratory stay.
Since the beginning of the US fiscal year, on October 1, 2021, have entered US territory by land a total of 140,602 Cubansa figure that already exceeds the Mariel exodus of 1980, when 125,000 people reached the United States in seven months.
Menéndez said that his life was at risk on his journey, “I endured verbal abuse going through adverse weather conditions, both intense heat and great cold, without bathing.”
After a “huge effort” he crossed the Rio Grande through Piedras Negras in northern Mexico. “When I set foot on North American soil I knew that my dream was starting to walk. I am a warrior, I always have been, and I knew it would come.”
Osleydis Menéndez is an athlete with character, accustomed to challenges, as she demonstrated in 2001 in Greece, when she set a world record with a distance of 71.54 meters. “When I achieved the first one, my feet shook so much that I couldn’t even walk. The emotion of having exceeded 70 meters was so great that I didn’t know what to do”, counted a while ago to the official media Hit. An achievement he surpassed in 2005 by registering a javelin throw of 71.70 meters.
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