Cuban Athletes’ Fighting Spirit Remains High

With only five more days to the conclusion of the Pan Am Games, Antonio Becali, president of the Cuban Sports Institute (INDER) said Cuba continues to be committed to going home with the best of results.

Without any athletes that have been bought or given citizenship based on their medal-winning potential, our delegation has faced every day with the fighting spirit that characterizes Cuban sports, Becali said in response to questions from journalists.

“Over and above any disappointment with our performance, which, in truth, is there, the decorum with which our athletes have pursued every medal is acknowledged,” he said. Becali also recognized the significant achievements of Canadian athletes, which he said put the country in a good position to hold on to the second place position it currently occupies.

“It has been a very demanding competition, with [Canada] showing it has been able to take full advantage of its status as host country, beginning with a well-prepared team that led the U.S. in number of medals earned for over a week,” he added.

“And then there is the demonstrated strength of Brazil, which is using these Games to assess everything they have put in place to produce high level performances when they host the Olympics next year. For this they have a whole strategy that includes contracting some fifty high level foreign trainers.”

“We have always insisted that the battle we face is a tough one. But the most important thing is that losing some expected title or obvious judging errors that go against us have not been able to dampen the fighting spirit of the Cuban athletes,” he pointed out.

“We will do our assessment when the competition is over, always from the standpoint of identifying how to do better in the future; but the event has not even ended yet, and there are still many happy moments to come,” Becali concluded.