When did Cuba become a Powerhouse in Athletics

The team that won the silver medal for Cuba at the 4x100m event in Mexico Olympic Games. From L to R: Enrique Figuerola, Pablo Montes, Juan Morales and Hermes Ramírez
http://www.ecured.cu/index.php/Archivo:Relevo_Cuba_4x100_(M)_2.jpg

                In the inaugural Pan American Games in Buenos Aires in 1951, the athlete from Camagüey Rafael Fortún became the first Cuban gold medallist in the history of the contest when he sensationally completed a double victory in the sprint events. However at his return home he did not receive any honourable mention. Instead, he was sacked from his job in the Ministry of Public Works, because of his absence, during the days he competed in Buenos Aires. Disgruntled, Fortún was about to leave Cuba and move to Puerto Rico but his neighbours organised a collection, thus getting to buy a house for the Pan American champion’s parents. Such was the talk about Fortún case inside the country, in the end he was reinstated by the government in his job and even promoted. (1) It was also through collection and raffle initiatives the talented sprinter could make the trip to London 1948 and Helsinki 1952 Olympic Games. He failed to achieve any international acclaim there. Nevertheless, he was one of the best sprinters of the world in his time. Besides his double gold medal in Buenos Aires, Fortún won the 100m at the Central American Games no less than three times in a row, and those marvellous victories were accomplished beating solid competition by the likes of Olympic medallists Herb McKinley of Jamaica and Lloyd LaBeach of Panama. Sadly, poverty and scant interest from authorities to the development of sport prevented the Camagüey-born to fulfil all the immense potential for track and field he had inside of him. Things have really changed since.
            Rafael Fortún was not however the first Cuban sprinter of world level. Though the first Olympic champion of the country had been fencer Ramón Fonst, soon the biggest island in the Caribbean Sea excelled in boxing and track and field, notably sprints. Pepe Barrientos was the lone Cuban participating in Amsterdam 1928. The athlete known as “El relámpago del Caribe” got to ran the 100m in 10.2. Though accomplished under no-legal wind conditions, the mark speaks about the level of that runner, who would die at 41 in a plane flight and gives name to the most important meeting in the annual Cuban athletic calendar. Barrientos' heir was Jacinto Ortiz, who had an unforgettable duel against local star Reginald Bedford at the Central American Games held in Panama in 1938, the day after both clocked 10.3 at the 100m, which was just one tenth short of the universal record of the immortal Jesse Owens. This mark would stand for 22 years until Enrique Figuerola improved it in 1960. Yet Ortiz and the rest of Cuban athletes could not even travel to the 1936 Olympic Games, due to internal political instability and bankruptcy, and he had not any further Olympic chance when World War II began. In those years Ortiz would make a living through baseball and, amazingly, also racing horses as his contemporary Owens did. Thus he was another talent lost in a time misery, illiteracy, corruption and lack of government care made the best athletes give up prematurely their track and field career to try professional baseball and boxing.   

Olympic legend Alberto Juantorena, a firm believer in the Cuban Revolution
http://www.elatleta.com/foro/showthread.php?136398-El-grado-cero./page4

            The triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959 would change altogether this disheartening panorama in national track and field. Through his famous slogan “Sport for the people,” Commandant Fidel Castro put the means to ensure everybody, even the most impoverished families, had access to the practice of sport, as a part of his program in search of a strong development of health and education inside the country. Castro, in the same way than his allies from the Communist block, believed in the virtues of sport as instrument for welfare and culture. He also dreamed like the USSR and East Germany in help become his country a sportive powerhouse to show the world the positive effect of the Revolution among Cuban people. Many of the most celebrated athletes as boxer Teófilo Stevenson and Alberto Juantorena were and still are earnest supporters of those ideas of their leader. Thus the latter states he would have never been able to become an Olympic champion, not even to develop an international track and field career, without those enthusiastic sport endeavours from Cuban government, as he came from a family, in which the father was often unemployed. (2) Juantorena has never stopped running, even after his retirement, because sport is quality of life, an excellent use of spare time, contributes to keep good physical health and optimal state of mind, to keep the person young. So he has instilled it to his children and now his son is a professional decathlete who participated at the 2007 World championships in Osaka. The double Olympic champion in Montreal points out it is important to be aware every victory is the consequence of a common project not just the success of an individual, so the medals must be shared with the people, with every citizen involved in the development of the athlete, in the building of Cuba. (3)      

                   In the 1960s Cuba drew up a program to spread the practise of sport all over the country and develop the teaching of it at grassroots levels, which is still the envy of many athletic powerhouses around the world. (4) In 1961 was created the INDER (Instituto Nacional de Deporte, Educación Física y Recreación) to administer sport in the country and set the planning for its development. Firstly, the INDER launched sportive facilities even in the most remote spots in the island, and organised quite a number of popular initiatives in order to stimulate mass involvement in sport. Secondly there were established the conditions to allow children to develop progressively their athletic potential. (5) Sport is in the core of Cuban educational system: Children devote up to six hours a week to it. They are encouraged to be exposed to at least three different recreational activities, because at these early ages it is not still important specialization. Kids run, jump and throw just to have fun, acquire general coordination and develop a right use of the locomotive system. Young talents join the EIDE (Escuelas de Iniciación Deportiva), where they have the opportunity of excellent technical training. The country dispose of no less than 1600 track and field coaches and 78.000 physical education teachers involved in the program, formed at the ESEF (Escuela Superior de Educación Física). (4) Central to this system are National School Games, where upcoming athletes have exposure to challenging competition. The most outstanding kids will continue their sportive formation at one of the fifteen ESPA (Escuelas de Perfeccionamiento Atlético), which exist in the country, where they also resume their academic teaching. Food, accommodation, books and clothing are provided by the government. Facilities are humble: grass tracks, rudimentary throwing circles and even two sticks in the ground with a rope around to make a hurdle. Yet two or three tough sessions are assured daily under world-class coaches. The best among the best athletes will end up in the national team. 

Enrique Figuerola strucks gold for Cuba at the 1966 Central American Games in Puerto Rico
http://www.odecabe.org/multimedia/galeria-de-fotos.aspx?albumsID=1492

             The USSR helped decisively in the development of sport in Cuba through donations of 5000-10.000 millions of dollars every year from the 60s to the 80s. (6)  As it happened in Ethiopia as well, Cubans benefited from exchanges with the Soviet Block.  http://moti-athletics-5000-.blogspot.com.es/2012/01/kenya-outckicks-ethiopia.html   Cuban coaches received formation in the USSR or East Germany schools and athletes assisted to camps and competed in those countries meetings. Also coaches and sport doctors from Eastern European nations travelled to Cuba and took in charge the development of track and field, boxing, gymnastics, volleyball, basket ball and any other sport. Thus Zygmunt Zabierzowski trained Juantorena, Enrique Figuerola was guided by Vladimir Puzzio and Miguelina Cobián by no less than Emil Zatopek. On the other hand, professional competitions in sports as boxing or baseball, which were under the influence of the USA, entered in contradiction with the new conception of sport and were eventually banned inside the national territory. Soon Cuba becomes the number two at the Pan American Games, only inferior to their powerful US neighbours’ prowess. At the Olympics, the Caribbean country progress steadily during the 1960s decade and obtain its first visible triumphs in Munich, when three boxers, including Teófilo Stevenson, win gold, after a 68-year-drought. Then in Montreal-76 the visits to the top stop of the podium increase to six and in Moscow-80 to eight. In Barcelona-92, Cuba has culminated its escalade, achieving 14 gold medals, for a total tally of 31, reaching an outstanding 5^th place in the overall medal table.  

                   The 1960s were a transitional period. Two sprinters, Enrique Figuerola and Miguelina Cobián stood as the dominating figures all over the decade with their long and solid careers, paving the way for the great feats of Alberto Juantorena, Silvio Leonard and Alejandro Casañas. Figuerola entered sport through baseball, but due to his stunning speed was advised to follow the way of the track. In 1956, still 18, the Santiago de Cuba-born beat two times national legend Rafael Fortún, who retired that same year, realizing that his time had past. The young Figuerola then claimed in 1960 the old national record of Jacinto Ortiz, clocking twice 10.2 in one week, making a clear statement he was the new king of the Cuban sprints. Thereafter he would lead the 100m and 200m rankings for ten years, setting a total of 29 national records, also making the world top-10 in six different seasons. The upcoming runner entered that year’s Rome Olympic Games but paid his lack of experience and almost improvised training, because he had not a regular coach at the time, finishing the 100m final just out of the medals. In following seasons, Figuerola would benefit of the foundation of the INDER and their ambitious sportive program. Polish coach Vladimir Puzzio took the sprinter in charge, correcting his technical mistakes and helping him become a world beater. (7) In 1961 “El Fígaro” achieved his first international victory at the World University Games in Sofia and two years later he also won the gold medal at the Pan American Games. After a meticulous preparation in Russia, the Cuban standout was ready for his second Olympic Games, where his most fearsome contender was US’ Bob Hayes. Both were quite different runners. While the North American was close to the ordinary sprinter: tall, iron-like muscled, with gigantic stride, Figuerola’s biotype was pretty atypical. He was just 1.67m tall and measured 63kg, but made up for this handicap with his bullet start and unbelievably quick stride cadence, together with his determination and tireless work. In Tokyo, the Cuban took as usual the lead in the first stages of the final. Hayes got to overtake him in the end, needing to break the world record to win the race, in a time of 10.06sec. Enrique Figuerola ended up second, achieving the first Olympic medal of the Cuban revolution and the first ever in track and field for his country.

Pablo Montes, the best Cuban sprinter at the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games
http://www.athlecac.org/MD/MDNews.asp?News=8

            In 1967 “El Fígaro” equalled the world best, with a manual timing of 10.0 in a meeting in Budapest. After him, new short-distance standouts Pablo Montes (10.2), Hermes Ramírez (10.2) and Félix Eugellés (10.3), proved the excellent health of Cuban sprints. All three, Figuerola, Montes and Ramírez made the trip to Mexico in what was to be the former’s third Olympic Games. From that trio, only Montes made the final, thanks to his consistency in every one of his qualifying heats. The man who had smashed the 400m national best before becoming a 100m specialist clocked 10.14 in the first round (a new national record), then 10.16 in the quarterfinals and 10.19 in the semi-final, before finishing in the most unfair of places in the decisive race (again in 10.14), after Jim Hines, the first human who ran the distance under 10 seconds, Lennox Miller and Charlie Greene. Hermes improved that Cuban record to 10.10 during the contest but was not as astounding in his semi-final. Those marks of this pair of Caribbean aces, helped by the altitude and the newly introduced synthetic track, made the electronic all-time top-10 and still are landmarks for the new generations of Cuban sprinters. For the 4x100m relay was added hurdler Juan Morales, a worthy heir of continental medallists Evaristo Iglesias and Lázaro Betancourt, who had become the first man in the country under 14sec that same year, and was also able to complete the dash event in 10.2. Ramírez produced an excellent outburst, Morales ran a powerful backstretch and Montes delivered the baton to Figuerola in contention for the gold medal. However, despite bad previous turnovers, Jim Hines was in the form of his life and romped home in 38.24 (a new world record) to beat the veteran Cuban anchor, who clocked 38.40 to close his athletic career with another silver medal. (8) It was a bittersweet reward for the Cuban quartet which was so close to the victory. This mark would stand as the national record for 32 years, until another Olympic-medal-winning quartet formed by Jorge Aguilera, Joel Isasi, Joel Lamela and Andrés Simón would clock 38.00 in Barcelona-92.     

                    Miguelina Cobián was the leading woman during the whole 1960s decade but the absolute pioneer was Julia Bertha Díaz Hernández. Díaz was the first Cuban female who participated in the Olympic Games, which she did in 1956 in Melbourne and then in 1960 in Rome. Not really lucky in those Olympic experiences, she achieved however astounding results in national and continental contests. At the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico she was the only member of Cuba, male or female, who won a gold medal in track and field. Succeeding Rafael Fortún, Bertha carried home the 60m gold medal and besides she did it smashing the world record in the distance (7.5sec). A versatile athlete, she would also set universal records at the 80m hurdles. It was precisely in that event she clinched her second title at the Pan Americans, at the 1959 edition in Chicago. Bertha, who claims to have won a total of 258 gold medals in her long career, was chosen 14 times female athlete of the year in Cuba and 12 of them best overall sportswoman in the country. (9) However she was critical with the Cuban revolution and had plenty of troubles with the authorities in the island. Bertha could not defend for this reason her continental title in Sao Paulo and was three years later, in 1966, the flip-side of the coin of the otherwise heroic episode of Cerro Pelado.

Bertha Díaz, the first Olympian female of Cuba
http://www.cabaiguan.net/profiles/blogs/bertha-diaz-la-gacela-de-cuba

The USA government tried to prevent the presence of Cuban athletes at the Central American Games to be held in the US'-ruled Puerto Rico. First they denied Visas to the athletes but, after the Cuban delegation raised a protest to the IOC, They were forced to produce them, yet they forbade the landing in Puerto Rico of any mean of transport coming from Cuba, demanding its athletes to arrive in an international flight. In answer to this tricky move, the Communist country decided to make travel its athletes in a merchant ship, named “Cerro Pelado,” after a famous military victory, anchoring it a few miles off Puerto Rico territorial waters. Embarrassed, the IOC sent motorboats to fetch the Cuban athletes and carry them to the venue of the Games. (10) ) In spite of the hostile atmosphere, those Central Americans were a resounding sportive success for Cuba. Among the gold medallists shone Enrique Figuerola and Miguelina Cobián. However, Bertha Díaz, who was into the ship, was instead sent back home, fearing she would defect. Soon afterwards, the first Cuban female Olympian left her country, heading first to Spain, then to Miami. In the USA she resumed her sportive career, winning three times at the national championships. Díaz was considered a traitor in her home country but she still complains about the way she was nearly kidnapped from the Cerro Pelado, accused of being a CIA agent. (9) 

Miguelina Cobián took the vacant spot of Bertha Díaz as national queen of track and field and was as successful. Spotted by triple Olympic champion in Helsinki Emil Zatopek and trained by him personally since she was 18, the athlete known as “La Gacela de Oriente” experienced a quick rise to the top of Cuban sprinting. In 1962 she obtained international acclaim as she won two golds and a silver at the inaugural Central American Athletic Championships in Xalapa, Mexico; and later in the year she also prevailed at the 100m in the Central American Games in Kingston, so important for her country, because it was the first big sportive event they took part, after the Cuban Revolution. Miguelina would defend her title in Puerto Rico, then in Panama, thus becoming the only woman who has accomplished three straight gold medals in sprint events in the contest. Although often outmatched by North American stars as Olympic champions Edith McGuire, Barbara Ferrell or Wyomia Tyus, la Gacela de Oriente was rarely left out of the podium at the Pan American Games. Overall, she collected three individual silvers and one bronze, besides the 4x100m relay silver in Sao Paulo 1963 and a marvellous gold in Winnipeg 1967 with her mates Violeta Quesada, Cristina Hechavarría and Marcia Alejandra Garbey. At the Olympic Games, Cobián lived up to her reputation as one of the most consistent sprinters in the world, placing 5^th in Tokyo and 8^th in Mexico City. She was the first Cuban woman that qualified for an Olympic final. In the latter competition Miguelina set her all-time PBs at the 100m and 200m with 11.41 and 23.39 respectively. Yet her most sensational achievement in the Aztec capital was the silver medal obtained in the short relay, thus matching the success of Ramírez, Morales, Montes and Figuerola. Cuba had a respectable number of world class male sprinters but women’s had even a deepest field. Violeta Quesada, Fulgencia Romay and hurdler/pentathlete Marlene Elejalde made the team which completed the lap to the track in an impressive 43.36, only inferior to the invincible girls of the USA, and there were still other sprinters as good as them as Cristina Hechavarría and Marcia Garbey, who had to be left at home.

Miguelina Cobián leads Cuban sprinters in a meeting in Paris
http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rights-managed/42-19722291/athletics-miguelina-cobian

Bertha Díaz had been very much of a pioneer. She was the first Cuban woman practising sport at global level and almost the only one doing so for a decade. For the next generation of women things were much easier. The Cuban Revolution, through the INDER, had brought access the same to boys and girls to the opportunity of learning the basics of sport into EIDEs and ESPAs. After a decade, the tree had grown big and healthy and was given quite a number of strong branches. In the beginning of the 70s there were a long list of Cuban excellent female sprinters, including hurdlers as Marlene Elejalde and quartermilers as 5^th placer in Mexico Olympics Aurelia Pentón and Carmen Trustée; also competitive jumpers as Irene Martínez, Alejandra Garbey and Ana Bella Alexander, and outstanding throwers as Tomasa González, María Betancourt, Hilda Ramírez, Grecia Hamilton, Caridad Agüero, 20m-shot putter María Elena Sarría and 69m-discus thrower Carmen Romero. At the highly successful 1970 Central American Games in Panama, Cuba triumphed in all 12 female events, including 8 full sweeps of the places of the podium. In that outing it was also remarkable the three gold medals Pablo Montes and Miguelina Covián accomplished at the 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay. Panama’s Central American Games meant the last international victories for La Gacela de Oriente, who would retire soon, after injuries prevented her from competing at the Pan Americans in Cali and Munich Olympic Games. Nevertheless, Carmen Laura Valdés and especially teen prodigy Silvia Chivás were ready to take over.     

Pedro Pérez Dueñas was the first Cuban triple jump star
http://www.jit.cu/home/default.asp

Two teen athletes made a big breakthrough at the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali. 19-year-old Pedro Pérez Dueñas became the first of an impressive lineage, when he landed at 17.40m in the triple jump, one centimetre beyond the mark which earned Viktor Saneyev the gold medal at the 1968 Olympic Games, in that thrilling competition where the world record was beaten five times. Precisely, Pedro defeat one of those triple jump colossi from Mexico final: Nelson Prudencio of Brazil. Still younger, not yet 17, Silvia Chivás from Guantánamo raised the eyebrows as she won a noteworthy bronze medal, also clocking in the contest 11.39, a new national record. Pérez Dueñas was trained at the ESPA by silver Olympic medallist in 1952 and former record holder Leonid Chervakov. (12) Under the guidance of that coach from the Soviet Union, the young athlete jumped in 1970 to 16.38, already a national record, and obtained his first international victory at the Central American Games in Panama. One year later came his sensational feat in Cali. However, injuries slowed down the triple jumper in the Olympic year and he could not qualify for Munich final, when he was still the record holder. Eventually, Saneyev won again and regained the record by the end of the season. Thereafter, chronic troubles with his knees hindered Pérez Dueñas’ athletic career. He had to watch by TV how new triple jump phenomenon Joao Carlos de Oliveira took his Pan American title with a huge jump of 17.89, which demolished the previous world record. Half-fitted the Cuban champion could get a 4^th place in Montreal Olympics, where Saneyev completed his hat-trick of victories. Never back to his former form and committed with his studies in medicine, Pedro Pérez Dueñas decided eventually retire in 1978. He only achieved to jump once beyond 17m in his senior career.

On the other hand, Silvia Chivás, one of the first pupils and future wife of new speed head coach in the national team Irolán Hechavarría, had an outstanding follow-up to Cali in the 1972 Olympic Games. Because of her youth she just went to Munich to learn but at the preliminary round she stopped the clock in 11.18, a new world junior record and the first universal best ever accomplished by a Cuban female in track and field in any age category. This mark stood until Brenda Morehead in 1976 ran the distance in 11.06, one year before Marlies Göhr set an impossible for current standards 10.88 in Dresden. Chivás showed great consistency in every one of her successive races, grabbing an excellent bronze medal with a good 11.24, only beaten by East German Renate Stecher, who set a new world record of 11.07, and Aussie Raelene Boyle. For the first time in years, a Cuban sprinter beat the US athletes in a major competition. Anyway, the North Americans had lost the spotlight in the event. For the new decade the powerhouses would be East and West Germans who fought the gold earnestly at the 4x100 relay, in a race 100m and 200m gold medallist Stecher was outmatched by long jump champion Heidi Rosendahl, and Cuba’s Silvia Chivás held off USA’s anchor to clinch bronze for Cuba, which got to climb to the Olympic podium for the second straight time in the event, matching the 43.36 national record from Mexico City. Marlene Elejalde and Fulgencia Romay contributed with their experience to the explosive youth of Chivás and Carmen Valdés.

Silvia Chivás of Cuba (66) clinches bronze at the 100m in Munich Olympic Games
in a race won by East German Renate Stecher (147)
 http://rapidas.webcindario.com/olympics.htm

Much was expected from the new Cuban standout who was already challenging the best in the world as a junior but in the following years she did not quite live up to the hopes she had created: At the 1974 Central American Games her mate Carmen Laura Valdés got the better of her, at the Pan Americans the next year she just won a medal in the 4x100m relay and finally in her second Olympic Games was eliminated in the semi-finals, while the reputed Cuban short relay ended up fifth, putting an end to their brilliant streak. Nevertheless in the 1977 season the best Silvia Chivás was back in action. In the highly successful Universiade in Sofia, where Cuban athletes won four titles and broke two world records, Chivás struck gold at the 200m and bronze at the 100m, also improving in the semi-final her old national best to 11.16. That year she became too the first Cuban woman under 23sec in the 200m (22.85) in Guadalajara and ended the year in a high note at the inaugural World Cup of Dusseldorf, where she only relinquished to Marlies Gohr and Brit Sonia Lannaman, the best two 100m runners of that year, for a praiseworthy bronze. In 1978 she kept the level winning no less than three gold medals at the Central American Games in Medellín but the next year, after a disappointing performance at the Pan American Games, she opted for retirement, not bothering for the Olympics, when she still was 25. Her national records would stand for many years until the arrival of Liliana Allen in the 1990s.   
         

                   In spite of their most exciting prospects ending up prematurely, Cuba continued with its meteoric rising in track and field in the remaining of the decade. Three men made up for the failure of those teen prodigies, three men we can place among the finest runners of their time: Silvio Leonard, Alejandro Casañas and Alberto Juantorena.  

           In the sprints, after Enrique Figuerola’s retirement, Hermes Ramírez and Pablo Montes were still going strong. They shone in continental contests in the first half of the new decade and had things to say in Munich and Montreal Olympic Games. However there was a new face in Cuban sprints that had quickly overshadowed them all. Silvio Leonard from the town of Cienfuegos had broken under the guidance of Irolán Hechavarría the 100m national junior record in 1973, with a time of 10.24sec and soon was causing a big impression among the seniors. (13) Montes and Ramírez had equalled Figuerola when they got to run the distance in 10.0 but, in 1975, 21-year-old Leonard matched the same world record holder Jim Hines when he stopped the clock in 9.9 in a meeting in Ostrava. On the contrary to previous Cuban tradition, the new national star was also an accomplished 200m runner. His contemporary Osvaldo Lara, author of a 10.11 PB, had inherited the bullet star of Figuerola and Hermes. On the other hand, Leonard had not a fast outburst but was gifted with excellent speed endurance. Another athlete born in 1954, Alejandro Casañas, spotted in a local competition in Guanabacoa, wanted also to join the rich tradition of Cuban sprinting but their coaches decided instead his height (1.88m) was ideal for the hurdles. Irolán taught him the basics of the event but it was Heriberto Secundino Herrera the man who made become him one of the best in the world technically speaking. (14) Prior to Casañas, athletes like Lázaro Betancourt or the 4x100m silver medallist in Mexico, Juan Morales, had excelled in regional contest yet their level was not enough to challenge the very best like Willie Davenport or Rod Milburn. Casañas would become the first world class Cuban hurdler, opening the road for future stars as Anier García and Dayron Robles. Both Leonard and Casañas were successful at the Central American Games in Santo Domingo and headed for the 1975 Pan Americans hoping to do well in the contest. Indeed, Silvio Leonard ran the 100m event in 10.15, beating in the process Hasely Crawford from Trinidad and Tobago, the man who was to become Olympic champion the next year, and Hermes Ramírez. Unfortunately Silvio was unable to stop and fell heavily into the ditch around the track. The severe injury would require back surgery. On the other hand, Alejandro Casañas, in another marvellous performance, accomplished a massive national record, 13.44, becoming the first no-US athlete gold medallist in the 110m hurdles in the Pan Americans. Another upcoming Cuban finished runner-up in the 400m, only beaten by United States representative Ronnie Ray. His name was Alberto Juantorena.      

Alejandro Casañas, the first Cuban standout at the 110m hurdles
http://www.elatleta.com/foro/showthread.php?115970-Fotos-atletismo-cl%C3%A1sico./page34

            Alberto Juantorena Dánger, who was called “El Caballo” and also deservedly “El Elegante de las Pistas” because there was never a runner displaying such majestic gallop on an athletic track, was born in Santiago de Cuba the 21^st November 1950. Still taller than Casañas (1.90m) and also gifted with speed and agility, he was enrolled in basket ball in his hometown ESPA. Juantorena was nothing special in this sport, but junior athletic coach in sprints and hurdles José “Cheo” Salazar, who used to watch him training, believed he had found a jewel for track and field. (15) After a test, Zigmund Zabierzowski, the Polish athletic head national coach, gave his approval and took him under his wing since 1971. In spite of his late incorporation to serious practise of track and field, Juantorena’s dedication and natural talent and Zabierzowski wise guidance soon brought stunning results. Notably, the athlete’s frame with very long limbs and short trunk was ideal for running. Besides he had a stunning capacity of recovery so he could stand the hardest workouts and his strong willpower made the rest. Juantorena was named in the team for Munich Olympic Games, where he arrived to the semi-finals in the 400m and obtained his first international title at the World University Games in Moscow the following year. When in 1974 he led the yearly lists with 44.70 from a meeting in Torino, Juantorena started to be favoured for a medal in Montreal Olympic Games, along with mates Silvio Leonard and Alejandro Casañas.  

Leonard had miraculously recovered from his injury at the Pan Americans but again misfortune stroke him, when in an accident in the Olympic Village a vase broke up and glasses reached his left ankle. The wound was a serious handicap for his performance in Montreal and he was eliminated in the quarter-finals. Silvio’s first chance for Olympic glory had vanished and without him the 4x100m relay of Ramírez and Montes lost its chances of climbing to the podium. Casañas was much closer but his silver medal was more a disappointment than a reason of happiness for him. The Cuban hurdler argues it was unfair to assigned him lane 7 in the final when he had won his heat with the fastest time (11.34) overall. Once in the decisive outing he was not quick in the start and could not see his main rivals after mid-race. Then he accelerated but it was too late to overcome French Guy Drut, who improved from silver in Munich to gold in Montreal in a close finish over Casañas (13.30 to 13.33), while the champion in Mexico City Willie Davenport ended up in third place. Yet, if Leonard and Casañas failed to deliver the much awaited Cuban first Olympic gold medal ever in track and field, Alberto Juantorena, in a magnificent display of elegance and power, did not bring one but two for his beloved country.  

However, “El Caballo” was quite unsettled when Zabierzowski communicated him he was doubling up events in the Olympics, because he had been entered in the 800m. The first thing he though was it would ruin his chances in his pet event, the 400m: there were too many races to complete and besides there were almost incompatible specialties. Prior to Montreal, the Polish coach had tricking Juantorena saying his 800m tests and high mileage he had to do in training were just a way to enlarge his endurance for the 400m. Now he realised about the true meaning of it. Anyway, obedient, the runner went to the 800m final to face the most solid field you can fancy at Olympic Games. Juantorena took the lead from the gun, leading the field to a very fast 50.9. At the bell Indian Sri Ram Singh launched his attack yet Juantorena overcame him in the backstretch again. He had gained a small gap over his contenders but then Rick Wohlhuter of the United States came from behind. It seemed the Cuban was going to pay his hot pace, however, as he was challenged, he powered strongly to romp home in 1:43.50, a new world record. He had transformed the 800m in a long sprint! Ivo Van Damme passed a fading Wohlhuter to win one of his two silver medals in the Games, and two outstanding hopefuls followed up: Willy Wülbeck, future first world champion of the event, and Steve Ovett, the next Olympic winner. Someone like European titleholder Luciano Susanji could only achieve a 7^th place in that world class final. That 800m race proved two of the qualities which made Juantorena a champion: his stunning capacity to change gear in the closing stages of the race and his competitiveness. He said he liked to come to a race feeling he was the devil and also stated the challenge of his rivals acted as a stimulus for him. In spite of his generous effort, Juantorena still had enough energy left for the 400m, which he also conquered in 44.26, the best clocking ever at sea level, before US athletes Fred Newhouse and Herman Frazier. The impossible double had been done for the first time in a global championship and we are still waiting for the second one, though in the female category Jarmila Kratotchvilova of Czechoslovakia got to emulate the Cuban at the 1983 World Champs in Helsinki.  Understandably Juantorena was named unanimously best world athlete of the year and also best Olympian in Montreal, along with Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci.      
  

  

http://www.youtube.com/user/ColectivoDMSR

The 1977 season showed every one in the Cuban awesome trio at the peak of their power. Silvio Leonard started the fireworks when he ran the 11^th August the 100m distance in 9.98 and the 200m in 20.08 in Guadalajara, on occasion of the inaugural World Cup American trials. Both were huge national records and the former also the second best mark ever, just behind the world record Jim Hines set in Mexico Olympic Games and the second time a human had dipped under the 10sec barrier. Leonard would improve further his 200m record to 20.06 in 1978 in Warsow. Ten days afterwards, Cuba obtained its best tally ever in a global championship at the Universiade, held in Sofia, just showing the sensational raise of the level of track and field in the island. All Silvio Leonard, Alejandro Casañas, Alberto Juantorena and Silvia Chivás won one gold medal each. Furthermore, Casañas and Juantorena in a historic day for Cuba set world records the 21^st August at the 110m hurdles and 800m respectively. Yet there is an amazing anecdote about that double feat the hurdler likes to tell: “Juantorena and I slept in the same hotel room. Before the finals of our events, which had to be held the same day in the lapse of a few minutes, Juantorena told me: “When we will come back from our races look at that piece of paper I am leaving into the drawer.” And we left. Everybody knows what happened that day. Alberto broke the 800m record with 1:43.44 and I did the same at the 110m hurdles with 13.21. When we returned back to our room was revealed what had been written in that piece of paper: “Today Casañas and I are going to break the 110m hurdles and 800m world records.” (14) And there was still more to come that year. The first IAAF World Cup, which was a prelude of the future World Championship in athletics, held its first edition in Düsseldorf. Silvio Leonard had to be content with two bronze medals in sprint events, in races won by USA representatives Steve Williams and Clancy Edwards, and Alejandro Casañas with silver behind East German Thomas Munkelt; yet Juantorena ratified his double victory from Montreal. The 800m was especially attractive because Alberto faced Mike Boit, the outstanding middle distance runner from Kenya, who was missed in the Olympic Games due to the African boycott. In a previous match in Zurich, the Cuban had got the better of his rival in an outing ran at a very quick pace like in Montreal, the way Juantorena liked more. On the contrary, the World Cup was a tactical race, decided in a kick in the homestretch. This time around Juantorena defeated Boit in the Kenyan’s own terrain. (17) For the second time the Cuban was voted best athlete of the year.

Notwithstanding, when the double champion from Montreal was asked why he did not set a fast rhythm at the 800m in Düsseldorf he answered it was because of tiredness after a very long season. (18) Indeed Alberto Juantorena raced no less than 36 times that year, always expected to win. That competitive craziness took its toll on him and thereafter injuries and uncountable chirurgical operations hindered his athletic career so the Cuban ace could never be the same again. At the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he was beaten in both his events by US athletes Tony Darden (400m) and James Robinson (800m). This continental contest is the only one he could never win, the one that is missed in his astounding curriculum. Besides, during the year Sebastian Coe would take his 800m record at the Bislett Games in Oslo.  On the other hand, Casañas found a fierce rival in the young Renaldo Nehemiah, maybe the most talented hurdler ever: the first man under 13sec in 1981, before he decided to join professional football. Nehemiah beat Casañas in both Pan Americans and the second edition of the World Cup in Montreal. Silvio Leonard fared better than his illustrious mates in those competitions. In the former he completed a sprint double victory and in the latter silver at the 100m but gold at the 200m. Often Silvio believed the double hectometre was the event he was most gifted for. I wonder what he could achieve in it, had he dedicated the same time to it than to the 100m, always the most fashionable discipline in track and field. 

María Colón, first Latin-American female Olympic champion
http://www.ecured.cu/images/3/32/Maria_c_colon.jpg

           None of the three Cuban standouts of the 70s could fulfil his dream of Olympic victory in Moscow 1980. Juantorena, far from his shape of four years before, opted for entering a single event, the 400m, where he could finish only fourth in a race won by host athlete Viktor Markin. On the other hand, Leonard and Casañas ended in runner-up positions when they came to the contest as clear favourites. Silvio did not enjoy his chances, in a final devaluated because of the boycott of the USA. In the end he was surprised by Briton Alan Wells, paying his excess of confidence as he recognised later. (13) Casañas, also in the absence of his black beast Nehemiah, was beaten again by East German Thomas Munkelt. In this defeat he blamed the lack of fair play of one of the Soviet Union athletes who in his words hit him twice during the final, slowing him down. (14) Fortunately, Cuba still won a gold medal thanks to javelin thrower María Caridad Colón, a 22-year-old young girl from Baracoa. Colón had won the Central American Games in 1978 and the Pan Americans the following year to continue her progression in Moscow, upsetting experienced favourites like Ruth Fuchs, Ute Hommola, Saida Gumba and world record holder Tatyana Biryulina. Colón’s opening throw of 68.40 killed the contest, thus becoming the first Latin-American female Olympic champion ever in any sport. (15) Another thrower, Luis Mariano Delís, was also successful in those Games, grabbing a noteworthy bronze medal at the discus throw, after Viktor Rashchupkin and Imrich Bugar, to start a brilliant international career. Delís, guided by Hermes Riverí, also the coach of Olympic champion in Barcelona 1992 Maritza Marten, was the only Cuban who won a medal at the inaugural World Championships in Helsinki and also climbed to the podium four years later in Rome. Basing his style in the German school, Delís had the most perfected technique of his time, to the point in every meeting his rivals studied it in order to learn from him. (19)   
             Helsinki World Championships came too late for Silvio Leonard, Alejandro Casañas and Alberto Juantorena, who were also deprived of competing at their last Olympic Games, when Cuba supported the Soviet boycott to Los Angeles. The double Olympic champion in Montreal won gold at the alternative Friendship Games, organised in Moscow, sharing this medal with Polish Richard Ostrowski. All three champions said goodbye to international competition soon afterwards, though Casañas pointed out he still intended to compete and was forced to retire by the Cuban Federation. An emotional man who always spoke aloud what he thought, the hurdler had eventually troubles with the politic regime of Cuba and ended up leaving the country to move to Colombia where he currently lives. He blames former mate and friend Alberto Juantorena, now member of the IAAF, President of the Cuban Federation and Vice President of the INDER, as the “intellectual author” of his marginalisation and eventual exile. (14)  

Alberto Juantorena was the first Cuban Olympic champion in track and field. Since then no less than 15 other Cuban athletes have climbed to the top of the podium at the Olympic Games or Summer World Champions in one or more occasions: Caridad Colón, Maritza Marten, Iván Pedroso, Javier Sotomayor, Anier García, Osleydis Menéndez, Yumeilidi Cumbá, Dayron Robles, Ana Fidelia Quirot, Ioamnet Quintero, Yoelbis Quesada, Daimí Pernía, Yipsi Moreno, Zulia Calatayud and Yargelis Savigne. In spite of the lost of the inestimable help of the USSR after the fall of the Soviet Block, the continuation of the long US' embargo and the subsequent economical crisis, sportive basis are well established and keep working to perfection. (20) Excellent coaching and work at the grassroots level continue to this day. Former athletes are now devoted to transmit to the new generations all their knowledge and experience. Every athletic specialty is well covered and today there are even excellent international results in areas Cuba never excelled before as combined events and pole vault, though some speak more precisely about a newly-recovered tradition in these events. Thus the coach of new sensations Lázaro Borges and Yarisley Silva is Rubén Camino, a 5.50 pole vaulter who won a silver medal at the 1987 Pan American Games. (21) However, not everything is sweet and nice in Cuba. What once was a young revolution, today is an old dictatorial regime unable to evolve and learn from its mistakes. Lack of freedom and corruption often tarnish Cuban socialist ideals and many well-known athletes have defected in the first occasion. Cuban officials would argue they have just sold their soul for a couple of dollars and this is not totally wrong. Anyway nowadays, Cuba is trying to avoid exacerbated amateur conceptions and thus champions like Dayron Robles or Yargelis Savigne are allowed private sponsorship by foreign companies as Adidas.

Strictly speaking about sport, is interesting to point out Cuba was for a long time a world powerhouse in sprint events but in the last 25 years most of its victories have been achieved in jumps and throws. The exception to this trend is the successful hurdles school, led by Santiago Antúnez, who received from the IAAF the coach of the year award in 2010. Since he began his labour in the mid eighties there has been an uninterrupted succession of world class hurdles, starting with 1986 World junior champion Emilio Valle, then Aliuska López, Odalys Adams, Erick Battke, Anier García, Daimí Pernía, Yoel Hernández, Anay Tejeda, Dayron Robles and finally new Pan American champion Orlando Ortega. (22) Old Soviet coaching influences have been blend there with a later close look to USA, French and British models to elaborate a successful hybrid of their own. (23) In plain contrast is the long crisis of the once astounding dash sprints sector, which precisely sank in the same historic moment that started the rising of Santiago Antúnez’s school. After Silvio Leonard’s retirement, Leandro Peñalver and Andrés Simón managed a decent succession, both clocking 10.06, the former winning gold at the 1983 Pan American Games, the latter at the 1989 World indoor championships. After them, the lineage was broken. No more Pan American champions, not even a finalist at Olympic level. In a moment the Caribbean sprinters, led by Jamaica, are ruling the world, no Cuban male has dipped under 10.10 for decades and Silvio Leonard’s records are on the way celebrate their 40th anniversary. Old master Irolán Hechavarría, acknowledging the lack of individual stars (with perhaps the only exception of 200m specialist Iván García), with the help of former runner Silvia Chivás,  priorised working with the 4x100m relay; thus he accomplished two bronze medals in 1992 (Aguilera, Isasi, Lamela and Simón) and 2000 (César, García, Mayola, Pérez-Rionda) Olympic Games. Today even this option is not possible anymore. Among the girls, there are similar pessimistic feelings. Exceptions as Liliana Allen and Roxana Díaz just confirm the rule. 

An interesting study of Doctor Ariel Muñiz Sanabria points to the curse of the “Campeonismo” as the main factor which explains Cuban failure to produce an international champion in dash sprints. (24)  Some specialists argue there is an inability to find new talents in sprint in the country. Actually, it seems the opposite: if we compare the marks of Cuban kids of 11 to 15 years with the ones obtained in other countries in the world of the same age, Cuban’s level is clearly superior. The problem is those Cuban promising youngsters stagnate when they reach junior age. The reason is, at the EIDEs and ESPAs, coaches’ wages and promotions are bestowed depending on the results in scholar competitions of their trainees. Thus those coaches look for short-term victories, instead of long- term development of the athlete. With this purpose kids are over trained: too much volume and intensity are required in workouts; also too much weight lifting. Instead of the simple fun of playing a sport, kids experience stress and burning-up so eventually many of them drop it even before becoming adults. If we confirm many of the historic standouts of Cuban sprinting did not join the practise of athletics until their junior years, many of them coming from team sports as football (Montes), baseball (Figuerola) or basket ball (Juantorena), we can downplay the efficacy of Cuban EIDE’s and ESPA’s in its task of forming specialists in sprints. Hopefully, new standouts as Roberto Skyers who beat the 200m national junior record in 2009 and Nelkys Casabona would help to finish up with this long drought of international medals. (25)                  

Silvio Leonard, still the Cuban 100m and 200m record holder, nearly four decades after his exploits
http://www.elatleta.com/foro/showthread.php?115970-Fotos-atletismo-cl%C3%A1sico.

(1) http://old.cubahora.cu/index.php?tpl=dossiers/figuras/deportes/share-tpls/ver-not.tpl.html&newsid_obj_id=1030750
(2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQgrcAf6vLM

(3) http://www.somosjovenes.cu/index/semana86/juantorena.htm
(4) http://www.spikesmag.com/features/cubawhereathleticslegendsaremade.aspx
(5) http://www.monografias.com/trabajos82/cultura-cubana-revolucion/cultura-cubana-revolucion6.shtml
(6) http://www.monografias.com/trabajos22/dictadura-y-deporte/dictadura-y-deporte.shtml
(7) http://www.juventudrebelde.cu/deportes/2009-10-10/el-figaro-que-volaba-bajito/
(8) http://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/29/necrologicas/1225234801_850215.html
(9) http://www.cabaiguan.net/profiles/blogs/bertha-diaz-la-gacela-de-cuba
(10) http://www.lajiribilla.co.cu/2008/n380_08/380_27.html
(11) http://www.encaribe.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2632:miguelina-cobian&catid=96:deporte&Itemid=100
(12) http://www.encaribe.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=476:pedro-perezEnciclopedia
(13) http://www.athlecac.org/MD/MDNews.asp?News=43
(14) http://www.atletismoenmexico.com/2011/01/31/alejandro-casanas-una-vida-de-obstaculos/
(15) http://www.radiorebelde.cu/beijing/monarcas/atletismo-monarcas.html
(16) http://www.encaribe.org/index.php?Itemid=100&catid=96:deporte&id=175:alberto-juantorena&option=com_content&view=article
(17) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1027809/index.htm
(18) http://www.lacumbiambera.com/documentales-de-deportes/alberto-juantorena-campeon-olimpico-cubano-jaliscoparkcom-video_2ab2d9fcb.html
(19) http://palcodeportivo.blogspot.com.es/2010_01_01_archive.html
(20) http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1006597/1/index.htm
(21) http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/2011/06/03/deportes/artic01.html
(22) http://www.ecured.cu/index.php/Santiago_Ant%C3%BAnez
(23) http://www.spikesmag.com/features/5reasonswhycubanhurdlersrock.aspx
(24) http://www.exxostenerife.com/arg/articulos/00000097d10cdf80a/0000009809141710d/03c19899300119e07.html
(25) http://pordeportes.wordpress.com/2011/11/16/roberto-skyers-la-bala-de-minas/