DID YOU KNOW …

Taismary Aguero was born and raised in Cuba before becoming a naturalized Italian citizen. She is one of the volleyball players most famous of 2000. Under the hands of Taismary Aguero, Cuba won the gold medal in volleyball in the 2000 Olympics in Australia. However, he escaped to Italy in 2001 and winning a national team call-up became the first volleyball player to score for Italy naturalized. Perhaps his greatest triumph was captaining his country again to their first World Cup triumph in Tokyo, Japan in 2007. Ironically, Italy, led by the amazing play of Taismary Aguero, defeated Cuba 3-0 (27-25, 25-19, 25-16) in the final.

Cuba did not send a boxing team for 1985 World Cup in Seoul, capital of South Korea. Why? Because Fidel Alejandro Castro does not recognize South Korea as a sovereign independent country. There were many famous boxers who did not go to Korea: Odelin Juan Torres, Pedro Orlando Reyes, Arnaldo Mesa Borrell, Jesus Sollet tomasen, Adolfo Horta Martinez, Eduardo Correa Ferrer, Duvergel Odelín Candelario, Angel Espinoza Capo, Julio Quintana Martínez, Pablo Romero Hernandez and Teófilo Stevenson Lawrence.

Ramon Fonst Segundo has won more Olympic gold medals Teofilo Stevenson (boxing), Alberto Juantorena Danger (track of and field), Mireya Luis Hernandez (volleyball) and Felix Savon Fabre (boxing). Who is it? Ramon Fonst was a famous swordsman in the years 1900, 1920 and 1930.
Born in a family oriented sport in the Cuban capital of Havana on August 31, 1883. His father was an athlete in the 1870 and 1880. Like Joseph Raul Capablanca (chess) and Eligio Sardinas Montalvo (boxing) was a sportsman who always competed with his love for Cuba.
Ramon Fonst won 125 medals at the competitions held in Europe, Latin America and North America. In the 1900 Olympics Games in France, Ramon won the gold medal in the event of a sword, and at the Olympic Games 1904 in the United States won three gold medals. In 1926, she won two gold medals in the Central American region and Games Caribbean in Mexico City. Certainly, Ramon Fonst is the greatest athlete of the 20th century Latin America.

In the 1990s, large numbers of athletes began leaving their country because of poor economic conditions and harsh treatment by the secret police. Many sought refuge in the United States, Spain and Canada.

Cuba sent 2 athletes to 2003 World University Games, held in Daegu, South Korea. Were Yordanis Arencibia and Yurileidys Lupetey (judo).

The World Youth Volleyball Championship 1987 was boycotted by Cuba. The place: South Korea. For the first time since 1978, the volleyball players of Cuba does not participate in a Olympic tournament. Cuba's team did not defend his world title he had won in Rome two years earlier.

Cuba sent 120 athletes to the World Games 1973 students, held in Moscow, USSR (now Russia). The number of Cubans participated in nine Olympic sports: basketball, athletics, fencing, gymnastics, volleyball, water polo, diving, tennis and wrestling. The best athlete was Alberto Juantorena, who won a gold medal in the 400 meters.

The Second World Baseball Cup was played in 1939 in Cuba. Three teams took part and the hosts won the final Nicaragua in Havana.

In 2006, Osmany Juantorena Portuondo was the Cuban athlete 18 to be disqualified for drugs. He is the grandson of Alberto Juantorena.

The Cuban dictatorship restricts people's contacts with third countries sports allies (in especially South Korea, Poland, Puerto Rico, El Salvador, Hungary and the Czech Republic). Allows few Cuban athletes to travel abroad.

DID you also know that:

As Alexandre Alekhine (France), Bobby Fischer (USA) and Garry Gasparov (Russia), Jose Raul Capablanca and Graupera is considered by experts as one of the major chess players of the twentieth century. He won the title of world chess champion from 1921 to 1927.
Where was Jose Raul Capablanca was born? Born 19 November 1888 in Havana.

The problem of illicit drug use among Cuban athletes closed the competition in the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela. The most notable was Cuban weighlifter disqualification Daniel Nunez, who had won a gold medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, USSR. He was elected Sportswoman of the Year for 1982 by Prensa Latina.

White was among Jorge Enrico of Cuba's most famous and favorite boxers. Why? In 1967, Pan American won the lightweight title.

At the Olympic Games 1904, the Cuban fencing team won 8 medals (3 golds, 2 silvers and 3 bronzes).

Maria Teresa Mora Iturralde was a famous chess player. In 1922, he won Cuba's National Championship.

From 1954 to 1968, Bertha Diaz won 258 gold medals. In the Pan American Games in 1955, won the 60 meter dash and qualified for the 1956 Olympic Games. Unfortunately, he escaped from Cuba in the 1960s when he became a communist dictatorship. In 1956, he set a new record Pan of 11.20 seconds in the 80 meter hurdles.

In February 1950, Rafael Emilio Fortun Chacon, set a new world record of Cuba and the 100 meters in the states of Central America and Caribbean Guatemala City.He born Agust 5, 1919, in Camaguey, Cuba.

Manuel Sanguily became in the first Cuban swimmer in the final classification at the Olympics, where he finished seventeenth in the world 200m breaststroke competition in Australia in 1956.

The volleyball team in Cuba is a disaster. Why? Because more than 14 volleyball players sought political asylum in Europe and Puerto Rico (2001-2007). Among them: Raydel Poey, Yasser Portuondo, Javier Gonzalez, Javier Brito, Maikel Salas, Yosleider Cala, Osvaldo Hernandez, Angel Dennis, Alexis Battle, Laseer Romero Ramon Gato, Jorge Luis Hernandez, Ihosvany Hernandez and Leonel Marshall.

Alejandro Guevara Onofre: He is a freelance writer. Alejandro is of Italian, African and Peruvian ancestry. He’s studied political science and journalism. He has published more than seventy-five research papers in English, and more than twenty in Spanish, concerning the world issues, Olympic sports, countries and tourism. His next essay is called “The Dictator and Alicia Alonso”. He is an expert on foreign affairs. Furthermore, Alejandro is the first author who has published a world-book encyclopedia in Latina America.

He admires Frida Kahlo (Mexican painter), Hillary Clinton (former First Lady of the USA), and Jimmy Carter (former President of the USA). His favorite film is “Gorillas in the Mist”. Some of his favorite books are “The Return of Eva Peron and the Killings in Trinidad” (by V.S.Naipaul), “Las Mujeres de los Dictadores” (by Juan Gasparini) and “Murder of a Gentle Land” (by John Barron and Anthony Paul). His personal motto is “The future is for those people who believe in the beauty of their dreams” by Eleanor Roosevelt.

Scuba Diving, Japan スクーバダイビング