2024-07-08 23:46:56
Text: Raul del Pino
Photo: RL Hevia
Judo is another vivid example that illustrates how Cuban sport is on tiptoe ahead of the Olympic Games. With the closing of the International Federation’s qualifying rankings, only four representatives from the island were granted tickets, a number lower than in previous editions and below the expectations of Inder for Paris 2024.
Ultimately, the quartet that will go to the City of Light will be led by the legendary Idalys Ortiz, who will seek her fifth medal under the five rings, after the crown in London 2012, silver in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and the bronze in Beijing 2008, always in more than 78 kilograms.
The experienced Artemisa native, who announced her retirement after the Games shortly after turning 35, will only be accompanied by the three-time Pan American champion Maylín del Toro (63 kg) among women. The meager figure makes one miss those golden years when Cuba had complete women’s teams under the wisdom of the great Ronaldo Veitía, who passed away at the end of 2022.
In the men’s category, only Matanzas Andy Granda (+100 kg) and Iván Silva (90 kg) managed to score the necessary points to earn a ticket to the summer event. In the case of the super heavyweight, he climbed to the top of the podium at the 2022 Tashkent World Championships, while Silva won a bronze medal at the world level at the 2018 Baku edition.
Although to a lesser extent than boxing, judo is another of Cuba’s historic disciplines in the Olympic Games. We could say that both, along with wrestling, make up the triumvirate of combat sports that have brought the Cuban delegations to the fore in the medal table by country. Not by chance, between them they add up to 58 of the 84 Cuban crowns under the five rings.
Of this trio, only wrestling managed to amass a good number of qualifiers for Paris, with 10 across its three disciplines. Boxing, on the other hand, disappointed by managing to secure passports for only five fighters, something that had not happened for more than 60 years, while judo will have the fewest representatives since Montreal 1976. In these last two cases, the brain drain and the poor generational change also took their toll on the plans for Paris.
From the competition in the Canadian city to Tokyo 2020, at least one judoka from the Caribbean island has climbed onto the podium in all the summer events in which Cuba has made an appearance (remember that it was absent from Los Angeles 1984 and Seoul 1988). The best performance of all was in Sydney 2000, when the harvest amounted to two crowns, the same number of silver medals and one bronze.
In total, Cuban judo boasts a resplendent haul of six golds, 15 runner-up finishes and 16 third places, rounding out the figure of 37 Olympic medals, since Guanajay native Héctor Rodríguez conquered the 63 kilogram throne 48 years ago in Montreal.
The Paris Games, despite the small number of qualifiers, could continue to add to the formidable list of achievements that places Cuba in sixth place in history, behind only the powers Japan, France, South Korea and China, in that order. The main hopes, as in Tokyo, Rio and London, rest once again on the legend that is Idalys Ortiz. Let us hope that she can make it even bigger.