Cuban Sports: A Continent in Itself
Dr. Nitheesh Narayanan
I was always in awe of Cuba’s achievements in the field of sports. Globally placed 83rd in population and 104th in size, Cuba was ranked 14th in the world in the 2022 Olympics. This has much to say to the world because Cuba was one of the smallest contingents to participate in the Tokyo Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the first time since 1964, a Cuban contingent with less than 100 members had made it to the Olympics. Yet they returned to their homeland, reaping more benefits than they had won at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The Cuban squad is among the top world athletes and is also the leading team in boxing, wrestling, baseball, volleyball, rowing, and judo. Besides their sporting excellence, what distinguishes them from others is that they carry their country’s socialist ideals at heart. I remember reading once that Cuba is a land of athletes who are also political creatures associating their struggles and victories with their country’s struggles. Hence, one of the most exciting things I learned during our trip to Cuba was their engagement in sports.
The National Sports and Physical Education Institute of Cuba was near where we stayed. We used to see that beautiful stadium complex daily, but time constraints limited us from familiarising ourselves with its interiors; it could have had better amenities. During our journey, we also saw many playgrounds. It needs to be mentioned that every school has well-equipped playgrounds. Cuban volunteers who accompanied us said all the provinces had at least one baseball ground. Fidel’s favourite sport was baseball; the picture of Fidel playing baseball is familiar to the world. Che’s cherished activity of chess is still one of Cuba’s favourite pastimes.
In Sports, Cuba has a ‘Granma’ named Cerro Pelado. In the sixties, the US stepped up its moves against Cuba. After the invasion of the Bay of Pigs, the possibility of another US invasion arose. They were constantly trying to create obstacles to Cuba’s participation in the international forum. It was in this context that the 1966 Central American-Caribbean Games was held in Puerto Rico.
Despite the challenges, Cerro Pelado, carrying the Cuban sports contingent, set off for Puerto Rico. That trip was one of the first testimonies of the Cuban athletes who had embraced the revolutionary sense that they would not yield to any attempts to isolate Cuba on the world stage. During their journey, they turned the ship into a training centre, unbothered by the US warplanes that circled them.
“As Cuban athletes, we know how to act, not only in terms of defending our right but a right of all the peoples and for the prestige of sports, which should exist as a link among peoples.”
– Cerro Pelado Declaration,
Due to disruptions created by the US, Cerro Pelado had to be anchored five kilometres from the shore. The athletes reached the coast of Puerto Rico by jumping onto another boat in the bay. Before disembarking from the ship, everyone in the team assembled and unanimously accepted the declaration read out by the President of the National Sports Academy. This later became known as the Cerro Pelado Declaration, which said:
“As Cuban athletes, we know how to act, not only in terms of defending our right but a right of all the peoples and for the prestige of sports, which should exist as a link among peoples.”
All along the way, the valiant Cuban players who came to participate in the Games were greeted with slogans. As the Cuban team lined up for the march past, the entire stadium stood up and cheered for them. When the Games concluded, the team won in baseball, relay and rowing. Besides, Cuba’s Miguelina Kobian and Enrique Figueroa were named the fastest female and male athletes of the Games.
Since they not only proved Cuba’s athletic potential but also the extent of determination of their nation, Fidel himself went to receive them. He took a boat ride toward Cerro Pelado, which hadn’t yet reached the Cuban coast, to welcome the athletes. The words of praise that Fidel showered, acknowledging the grit of these athletes, help us to gauge how much Cuba valued them:
“It is possible that there is no delegation to which our homeland owes more gratitude than this one for the battle that its members waged, for the triumphs they obtained at the hardest moments, for the dignity that they displayed.”
Cerro Pelado (1966), directed by Santiago Alvarez, is about this Cuban battle in sports. This short Alvarez documentary has recorded this episode from Cuban history without diluting its intensity.
Another reminder is the training centre named after Cerro Pelado—Cerro Pelado Athletic Training Center—one of the most important sports institutes in Cuba. The meeting of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, which Mayukh Biswas and I attended, was held here. In the training centre, there is a huge metallic art installation of the ship with Che’s face to its right. A text of the famous Cerro Pelado declaration also accompanies this. Furthermore, there is a large plaque with photographs of several individuals organised into three columns. These photos are of the athletes and officials on board a Cuban plane that was bombed in 1976 by a Miami-based anti-Cuban terrorist group. The attack was planned by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the US. Of the 73 people killed in the attack, 24 were Cuban sports team members. The inscription on the plaque—a reminder of the imperialist terror and the remembrance of martyred sport geniuses—goes like this:
‘They couldn’t accept the respect at the Olympics. But they have risen to the glory of being martyred for their homeland.’
These reminders of Cuban resistance at the Cerro Pelado Athletic Training Center also suggest about the upbringing of the Cuban athletes. They grow up playing without letting the sea of forgetfulness engulf their historical experiences.
As we walked and watched the arrangements at the training centre, we witnessed firsthand the Cuban vision of providing wholesome support to the athletes and focusing on delivering the best training facilities. Athletes from different parts of Cuba stay and get trained there. The day we first visited the training centre, the selection trials of junior wrestlers were going on in its indoor stadium. On the same day, what we heard from India was how the President of the Wrestling Federation of India and the state brutally suppressed the athletes protesting against the sexual harassment that they faced. This reality was starkly different from Cuba’s approach of treating their athletes as the country’s wealth!
Nitheesh Narayanan with the staff of the Cerro Pelado High Athletic Centre, Havana.
From the age of four itself, all children in Cuba are given training in various sports. Therefore, those who exhibit special skills will be identified early on and transferred to a sports school at the age of 12. At least one such school exists in every province of Cuba to facilitate learning and sports training.
Before the revolution, sports and entertainment facilities were meant to be enjoyed only by the rich, but today, it is part of the daily life of Cubans. Cuba’s socialist leadership has been able to build a popular sports culture and universal sports infrastructure, thereby rewriting its past, where growth in the field of sports was only accessible to the affluent classes.
“I’m already rich because of the affection that millions of Cubans are showering.” – Teophilo Stevenson
It must be mentioned that socialist Cuba was unwilling to feed the market interests regarding sports. Following the revolution, professional sports were banned in Cuba. Fidel described the proponents of professional sports as human traffickers selling body and soul. Professional teams circled to hijack Cuban athletes. Except for a few, all Cuban stars kept reminding the world that their lives are not measurable with money. When we think of them, the first face to come to mind is the Cuban legend Teophilo Stevenson—the three-time Olympic gold medallist in boxing. Stevenson embarrassed those who promised to make him rich by paying millions of dollars for leaving amateur boxing and opting professional competitions with the reply, “I’m already rich because of the affection that millions of Cubans are showering.”
In the sixty years since the first Olympics in 1896, Cuba won only four gold medals. But in the sixty years since the Revolution, the number of gold medals won by Cuban athletes was 79. From 1959 to the present day, Cuba has won more than 1,000 medals at the Pan American Games.
Similar to what we have seen in the health sector, in sports, Cuba’s approach is to share its best with other countries. Cuba has sent sports coaches, technicians and teachers to various countries. More than 8,000 Cuban coaches and sports teachers serve in over 50 countries. There are hundreds of sports teachers and experts who have completed their training in Cuba and are working in third-world countries. Cuba has also established the International School of Physical Education and Sports, where more than 1,500 people from more than 70 countries study sports. Coaches, physiotherapists and doctors from Cuba can be seen alongside the teams representing different countries in the Olympics and the Pan American Games. The benefits of paying particular attention to sports medicine have also contributed to the Cuban surge. Cuba has also developed a treatment method to free athletes from drug addiction.
No sports lover can ever forget Cuba for that it gave back health and confidence to the football legend Diego Maradona at a crucial juncture in his life! With the decision to join hands with Cuba in the field of sports, the day is not far away for the state of Kerala to emerge as a beneficiary of the sporting prowess of socialist Cuba.
Cuba’s principles of internationalism and how staunchly they adhere to them have permeated their athletes and playgrounds. In April 1959, Fidel said, “When all children find in the city, in the town, an appropriate place for developing their physical condition and dedicate themselves to the practice of the sport of their preference, then the desire of all of us who have made this Revolution will have been met.” Hence, socialism is not just about the economic reorganisation of society. Socialism is a process of building a new life. It includes everything that gives colour to human life, from art, sports, literature, cinema and scientific investigations to everything alike. Socialism enables every human being to become the inheritor of all of these. It creates a world of joy without discrimination
Dr. Nitheesh Narayanan is Vice-President of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and a former editor of the Student Struggle. He completed his PhD from JNU, New Delhi. Nitheesh is now a researcher at the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research.