Guidelines for Relaunching Sports: Building on the Foundations of 2025

The year 2025 leaves us with several guidelines for deploying the relaunch of the essence of the sports movement, whose foundational support has the people as its main recipient.

The calendar included the Law of the Cuban Sports System, the first of its kind in the country, to provide institutional and legal order to all processes in Physical Culture, Recreation, and high-level competition, approved in July by the National Assembly of People's Power. This same calendar noted, in the same month, the Accountability Report of INDER before Parliament, an opportunity to correct course from the perspective of the people's representatives.

February saw the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the National Commission of Retired Athletes, an idea of Fidel's that, in his centenary, needs and is essential to revitalize.

Of course, the major competitive arenas also marked these last 12 months. The world title of Leyanis Pérez in the triple jump filled every inch of the Island with pride, which rose with another feat in the strong arms of Marifélix Sarría, world runner-up in weightlifting.

There are also the world youth titles of Cristian Menéndez, in racquetball, and the invincible boys of Baseball5; and the gold medals of parapowerlifters Amalia González and Daynelis Vázquez in their world event.

Cuba managed to be in the Under-12 and Under-18 baseball world cups and achieved its qualification to the world tournaments in the Under-15 and Under-23 categories, in two epic battles, thus completing its presence at all ages at the highest level. It was, in the midst of a turbulent 2025, the best of national sports.

The worthy performances at the Junior Pan American and Parapan American Games were welcome, as well as those of the delegation to the Deaflympics, with an undisputed queen, Suslaidy Giralt, with her ninth Olympic crown and thirteenth medal, the most decorated athlete at that level, regardless of sex or modality.

THE JOURNEY BEGINS WITH THE SEED

But let's focus on the guidelines, because a Law, the recommendations from an accountability report before legislators, or a celebration are not enough if these tools placed in the hands of the sports movement are not converted into facts.

The athletic universe in the full first quarter of the 21st century does not resemble the one that prevailed in the last century, not even at the beginning of this one. High commercialization has become embedded in its DNA, even bringing changes in training processes. High-level competitions are multiplying in pursuit of qualification, not only for the Olympics but also for the Pan American or Central American and Caribbean Games.

This forces attendance at any event in optimal condition, which requires knowledge, science, and financial resources that allow presence on the field, in order to meet qualification requirements. For smaller countries with dependent economies, it is increasingly difficult to be in that vast competitive spectrum, and even more so to triumph in it.

The legal framework not only supports sponsorship in search of financing to sustain those demands but also presupposes what to do in each place where sports training materializes and prioritizes the base, community sports, and sports in our schools, as the fundamental foundation of development. But this needs control; it requires a strategy from the municipality to the province: if we are not strong there, we will not be strong at the level of national teams.

On that path, the starting point is Physical Education. Without the quality of its class, if the child is not motivated, the sports edifice collapses. The teacher there is the pillar of Olympic and world medals, and their indispensable contribution must be recognized.

José Martí reasoned that in children, it is necessary to strengthen the body to the extent that their spirit is strengthened; from him we learned the uniqueness of both elements in the harmony of the human body. That, precisely, is Physical Education, the support of an immense wealth of knowledge and intense days in which the intellect demands endurance and strength from the body.

So much uniqueness and transcendence makes us ask: why in 2025, as in previous years, was the best teacher of this subject not awarded?

On May 28, when closing the governmental review of the sports body, Politburo member and Prime Minister Manuel Marrero Cruz stated the purpose of returning Cuba to the segment of the first 20 nations in the Olympic Games. Well, without the quality of that class, such an endeavor would be very cumbersome, almost impossible.

Looking ahead to the Olympic event in Los Angeles-2028, one of the potential avenues to reach the leading twenty nations involves revitalizing that idea of Fidel's that our sports glories are not forgotten. There is no better attention for them than participation in the formative process of athletes on the path to a medal. No one like them can influence the training, in the timely advice of the future champion. Reducing their attention to material aspects—which does not mean dispensing with it—would be to waste a broad wealth of knowledge and commitment.

Now 2026 is at the door, which will open high-caliber events such as the Youth Olympic Games, the Central American and Caribbean Games, and the World Baseball Classic, among others. An organic strategy, which takes science by the hand to optimize every resource, and the unity of all the strengths of the Cuban Sports System, would lead us to scale those demanding podiums.