A triathlete swims in a tiny above-ground pool on her rooftop, her waist attached to the wall with resistance bands, while a baseball player bats into a car tire and a boxer throws his punches into a bag of rice hanging from a mango tree.
In cash-strapped Cuba, famed for its resourcefulness as well as its sporting prowess, professional athletes are inventing ways to work out and practice, despite the closure of common training grounds due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With most on state salaries of less than US$40 per month, they cannot afford professional equipment at home. Nor would that be easy to acquire in a country subject to trade embargos and where the state has a monopoly on imports.
Photo: Reuters
“I’ve had to invent,” said triathlete Leslie Amat, 27, sweating profusely after a full workout on her Havana home’s rooftop that is lined with potted plants.
In one corner is the 3m-long pool that her trainer’s nine-year-old daughter lent her when authorities last month closed down the Olympic-sized pools she usually trains in as the virus started to spread in the Caribbean country.
Using bands attached to the wall, she swims in it every day for 30 minutes. Then she runs on the spot using the same method, before hopping onto her road bike made stationary with a stand — her one piece of professional equipment.
Photo: Reuters
Amat also created a separate contraption, a wooden board tilted at a 45° angle on tubes, to allow her to improve her upper-body strength. She leans against it and pulls herself up and down with straps.
A video of her improvised workouts, accompanied by the hashtag #quedateencasa (“stay at home”), went viral on social media this week.
Baseball player Santiago Torres has taken to hitting a car tire with a bat to keep up his strength now that he cannot use the automated pitching machines at the training facility of his team, Santiago de Cuba.
“I’ve been keeping active at home, doing defense exercises with rubber balls and also swinging the bat,” he said in a state television report.
For such athletes, suspending training until Cuba ends its lockdown is out of the question.
“My dream is to get the Tokyo Olympic Games,” said Amat of the Games that were postponed to next year.
To qualify for the Cuba team, she still needs to score well in a few races.
Meanwhile, she is one of the star participants in a “race at home” today created by the organizers of the Varadero half marathon. Participants are being asked to run 1km to 3km at home, whether around their garden or on the spot, and to post photos and videos on its Facebook page.
“In these difficult times we need to be very creative,” Amat said. “Always remember this will pass and continue with our personal goals.”
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