Cuban head coach Pedro Roque yesterday brushed aside concern that the country’s Olympic boxing team was in crisis after a spate of defections as fighters flee to seek professional riches overseas.
Boxing is a national sport in Cuba and the Caribbeans have won 32 of their 65 Olympic gold medals in the sport.
But it has been plundered of five of its best talents over the last few years as pugilists escaped their country to join the lucrative professional ranks — something denied them by the strict communist regime in Havana.
“Psychologically, our boxers are not affected by this [the defections],” Roque said.
“In Cuban boxing there is a competition for places and everybody wants to be the best of our country. Our boxers don’t feel they are just replacing the defectors. They feel that now they have their chance to shine at the Olympics,” he said.
Former dictator Fidel Castro banned fighters from turning professional, believing they should serve their country by winning medals that glorify the nation rather than chasing their own fortune in the pro ranks.
But many feel differently.
Odlanier Solis, who claimed the heavyweight title in Athens in 2004 and also won three world titles, but in December 2006 he and fellow reigning Olympic gold medalists Yan Bartelemy (light-flyweight) and Yuriorkis Gamboa (flyweight) all went missing.
They turned up in Miami and signed professional contracts with Germany-based Arena Box Promotions.
If that wasn’t bad enough, six months later double Olympic and twice world champion bantamweight Guillermo Rigondeaux and 2005 world champion welterweight Erislandy Lara both went on the run after the Pan-American Games in Venezuela.
They were both picked up by Brazilian police and deported back to Cuba but subsequently kicked off the boxing team. Lara fled again in a speed boat to Mexico and turned up in Hamburg, Germany to sign with Arena.
The spate of defections saw Castro withdraw the team from the 2007 World Championships in Chicago.
It means that Cuba are without all five of their gold medalists from Athens — the fifth, lightweight Mario Kindelan has retired — in Beijing, and have not competed at the World Championships since 2005.
“We had to revamp our whole team just one year ahead of the Olympic Games,” Roque said.
“But it won’t be easy for our rivals to beat us. I can’t say that we will win a lot of gold medals but I think we can try to win silver and bronze,” he said.
He acknowledged they have a young team here, but said boxing training started early in Cuba and his team was well-prepared.
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