Alberto Juantorena, boxing and judo gold medals in Montreal 76

Alberto Juantorena, in the 400 and 800 meters of athletics; boxers Jorge Hernandez, Angel Herrera and Teofilo Stevenson, and judoka Hector Rodriguez, won golden glory at the 21st Olympic Games in Montreal 76, placing Cuba in eighth place by countries, with five gold, four silver and three bronze medals.

As with boxing, athletics maintained the golden pace in the Olympic Games with the outstanding performance of Juantorena, who climbed to the top of the podium in the last race of the sprint and the first of the middle-distance, the only athlete who has achieved that result until today.

In the 400 meters he was among the favorites and stopped the clocks in 44.26 seconds, his lifetime best up to that time at that distance, and in the 800 he crossed the finish line three days later with 1:43.50 minutes, a new world record, despite the fact that he was not even considered to reach the final.

For all these reasons, experts continue to describe their overall performance in the Canadian city as a feat.

Teofilo Stevenson, the delegation's flag-bearer, repeated the gold he won in the over 81 kilograms (kg) in Munich '72, and Jorge Hernandez and Angel Herrera made their debut as Olympic champions in the 48 and 57 kg, respectively, while Hector Rodriguez debuted at the top of the podium on the tatamis.

Athletics also contributed to the medal standings by nations with the silver medals won by Alejandro Casañas in the 110-meter hurdles; as well as boxing with silver medals won by Ramon Duvalon (51 kg), Andres Aldama (63.5 kg) and Sixto Soria (81 kg), and bronze medals won by Rolando Garbey (71 kg) and Luis Felipe Martinez (75 kg).

Men's volleyball won the other bronze for the Cuban delegation, made up of 156 athletes -132 men and 24 women- who competed in 14 disciplines.

The first three places in the medal standings went to the Soviet Union (49-41-35), followed by the German Democratic Republic (40-25-25) and the United States (34-25-35).

The Montreal multisport event took place from July 17 to August 1, with the participation of 6,084 athletes from 92 countries, who competed in 198 events in 21 disciplines.