Yarisleidis Cirilo and the weight of the champion

She has defended her status in canoeing with the same passion with which she presents her ideas in the meeting room of the National Parliament, far from Caimanera, the place where she started in sports, or Halifax (2022) and then Duisburg (2023), to become two-times world champion and the youngest member of the Cuban Parliament to the National Assembly of the People’s Power.

Yarisleidis Cirilo Dubois, Cuba’s best athlete in 2022, is today an ambassador of Cuban women in the world with all that it implies: courage, maturity, responsibility, joy, passion, and unwavering faith in herself, in what she can achieve if she trusts herself.

It is a fact that now rivals see me as the great champion and everyone wants to beat me, but I only try to improve myself. I have no other rival than myself, said the 21-year-old girl via WhatsApp, who won the world championship in the C1-200m race to materialize a trophy that had previously looked promising.

Speaking calmly, slowly, coherently, this woman from Guantanamo seems to have total control over her life and does not hesitate to point out the medical triad as protagonists in the rich script she is writing. She talks about the importance of psychology to remain focused, a profession she loves even though she is actually studying a Bachelor's Degree in Physical Culture.

Before even joining the national team, I dreamed like everyone else of being a champion, and now that I have become one, I just want to continue winning one, two, three…many times, she adds in a burst of optimism. And this is a virtue that has pushed her to become one of the best athletes in the history of canoeing on the Island.

Cirilo Dubois, who is currently training in Colombia to face the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile in October, also praises his everlasting coach Nelson Perales as the axis of her success. This man found her a decade ago, got her in a canoe for the first time and taught her to swim during her journey through the grassroots categories.

After earning the C1 and C2 tickets to the Paris 2024 Olympics, the canoeist has in mind to shine in the event under the five rings, but she is going slowly. Firstly, she wants to contribute to the Cuban delegation in Chile, which has the firm purpose of remaining in the elite of the sports movement on the continent.

I am going to put a lot of effort into the Pan American Games, firstly because of what this type of competition represents for Cuba and secondly, because I was not able to participate in the Central Caribbean Games in San Salvador, she said while put the finishing touches to her training.

If there is a driving force behind her sculpted anatomy, it is the love of the people who support her, especially his mother and the rest of the family, his sister Diorgina, who is also a canoeist, her boyfriend Ángel Daniel and his mother-in-law Regla Bárbara, residents of Varadero, in the province of Matanzas.

To the people of Cuba, Yarisleidis Cirilo Dubois also wanted to leave a message: “I am very grateful for all the support and expressions of affection, with the trust you have placed in me. I still have a lot to show in sport and all my glories will be shared with you.”

Translated by Sergio A: Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff