Legendary Cuban javelin thrower enters the IOC

A legend of athletics in Cuba and Latin America, former javelin thrower Maria Caridad Colon began another chapter in her brilliant sports career by becoming one more member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Colon, who became a champion and record holder in the 1980 Moscow Olympics and the first woman in Latin America and the Caribbean to win a title in the Olympic Games, she received the support of the members of the IOC at the remotely-held 136th Assembly of the entity.

Eighty-eight IOC members voted for Colon, four abstained and only one voted against her.

The athlete won the gold medal in the 1980 Moscow Olympics with a mark of 68.40 meters, in her first throw, a record at the time. The silver and bronze medals went to the Soviet Saida Gunba (67.76) and East German Ute Hommola (66.56).

In addition to that medal, Caridad Colon also holds the Pan American titles of San Juan 1979 and Caracas 1983.

Colon would be the fifth Cuban to join the IOC throughout history, and the first woman to achieve it.

Other Cubans who have been IOC members before her were Porfirio Franca y Alvarez de Campa, between 1923 and 1938, Miguel Angel Moenck y Peralta (1938-1969), Manuel Gonzalez Guerra (1973-1993) and Reynaldo Gonzalez Lopez (1995-2015).