2024-04-06 13:34:03
Text: Editorial Cuba Noticias 360
Photo: Cuban sports archive
Cuban sports authorities confirmed the death of Olympic silver medalist Violeta Quesada Díaz at 76 years of age. The former sprinter born in Santa Clara died the day before in the American city of Tampa, as a result of a cerebral thromboembolism, according to different reports on social networks.
Quesada Díaz, who was visiting the Florida city, touched glory as a member of the Cuban team that was proclaimed runner-up in the 4×100 meter relay at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, along with Marlene Elejalde, Fulgencia Romay and Miguelina Cobián .
The other most important result of his career came a year before the summer event in the Mexican capital. At the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, that same women’s short relay won the gold medal after beating the American favorites in the final.
Managers and sporting glories of the island lamented the death of the outstanding former runner who in 2005 was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Central American and Caribbean Athletics Confederation.
“She was one of the essentials in that generation that paved the way for achievements,” declared the monarch of Moscow 1980 in the javelin throw, María Caridad Colón.
The also member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and vice president of the Cuban Athletics Federation added that “together with her colleagues from that relay, she was an example to follow for all women who later continued to reap triumphs for our sport.”
The president of the Cuban Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (Inder), Osvaldo Vento, joined the expressions of condolences on his account on the social network Cuban”.