ON March 1, 1565, Estácio de Sá, the nephew of Mem de Sá, founded the city of São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro, in the region lying between the Pan de Azúcar and the Cara de Cão mountains, in the current neighborhood of Urca.
Since then, the populous Brazilian city has hosted a range of events of various kinds.
The home of the open-armed Christ the Redeemer statue, unveiled in 1931 atop Mount Corcovado, will host the 31st edition of the Summer Olympic Games (really the 28th edition, as three were suspended during WWI and WWII), beginning Friday, July 5.
The quadrennial event will see an estimated 10,500 athletes from 206 nations competing in 306 events, with the comeback of sports such as golf, after 112 years, and rugby sevens, after a 92 year absence.
Brazilian authorities have made great efforts to ensure the success of the multi-sport event, especially in epidemiological terms, with a robust health offensive to eradicate the Zika virus, transmitted by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which has been spreading across the nation.
According to Carlos Arthur Nuzman, president of the Brazilian Olympic Committee and the Organizing Committee of the Games, 7.5 million tickets will be on sale to spectators, while a force of 45,000 volunteers, 85,000 outsourced staff and 6,500 professionals will also play their part in the logistics of the huge event.
There will be a total of 32 competition venues, concentrated in four areas of the city: Barra, Deodoro, Maracaná and Copacabana; to guarantee maximum quality in the first South American city to host the Olympics.
THE QUALIFYING CRUSADE
In Las Tunas, during the Aurelio Janet Memorial competition, Cuban discus throwers Jorge Fernández (65.35 meters) and Yarelis Barrios (62.50m) achieved two further qualifying scores on route to the Marvelous City. Their throws momentarily set the total number of athletes from the island to have qualified for the Río Games at sixty.
The number of Cuban athletes competing (43 men and 17 women) will most definitely increase, as 143 members of the national team remain immersed in the qualification process.
José Miranda, High Performance director of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), explained that so far the highest numbers to qualify have been seen in the disciplines of athletics, with twelve male athletes and thirteen female, and men's volleyball (12) as the only team sport to have secured its participation at the Games.
Also to have qualified are the island’s boxing and shooting teams, with seven competitors in each, together with three in the rowing events, two in both the modern pentathlon and wrestling, and one athlete each in gymnastics and canoeing.
In total, the island has the potential to compete in 23 sports in Río, and to reach this goal, a total of 268 athletes were shortlisted for the Games, 146 men and 122 women, with an average age of 25.
Miranda noted that Cuba will not participate in 138 of the 306 Olympic events scheduled in Brazil. The island expects to finish among the top twenty countries in the medal count, and hopes to surpass its London 2012 performance, where Cuba finished in 16th place among 204 competing nations, with a total of five gold, three silver and six bronze medals, the best result in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Regarding the Olympic pre-selection team’s training program, Miranda stressed that all have been meeting parameters set for each stage, and the 39 athletes with real possibilities of reaching the podium are being more rigorously monitored.
TOP EVENTS
Boxing is without doubt the leading Olympic event for the island. Of a total of 72 gold, 67 silver and 70 bronze medals won by Cuban athletes in the country’s nineteen Olympic appearances, the island’s boxers have contributed 34 gold, 19 silver and 14 bronze medals, placing them in second place behind the United States (50-23-38) on the all-time Olympic medal count.
Cuban boxers have yet to qualify in three divisions for this year’s Games: in the 49, 56 and 91 kilogram events. Boxers in these divisions will seek to secure their tickets to Río during the Olympic qualifier in Buenos Aires, Argentina, March 6-20.
Among the other events where a strong performance is expected, such as martial arts and athletics, judo will play an important part. Cuba’s judokas feature in fifth place on the all-time medal table, with a total of six gold, thirteen silver and sixteen bronze medals. Japan (34-18-18), France (12-8-24), South Korea (11-14-15) and China (8-3-9) are in the top four positions.
Looking ahead to Río de Janeiro, a squad of ten judokas, five of each gender, are seeking to accumulate as many points as possible in the rankings. Their final opportunity before Río will be the Pan American Championships in Havana’s Ciudad Deportiva, a tournament that will award 400 points to champions in each category.
Virtually assured their spot in Río are Idalys Ortiz (+78kg) currently in third place in the world rankings with 1,926 points; together with the men under coach Noda: Asley González (90kg) who ranks ninth (with 1,232 points), José Armenteros (100kg) in eleventh place with 944 points; Alex García (+100kg) number 32 in the rankings with 472 points; Magdiel Estrada (73 kg) in 39th place with 394 points; and Iván Silva (81kg) number 41 in his division with 431 points. The top 21 judokas of each weight category in the men’s world rankings will directly qualify for the Summer Games.
Meanwhile, also seeking to secure their spot among the top fourteen women in the rankings for each weight category, and thus their place at the Games are Dayaris Mestre (48kg) in 19th place with 708 points; Yalennis Castillo (78kg) number 22 with 505 points; Maricet Espinosa (63kg) in 23rd place with 454 points; and Onix Cortés (70kg) number 25 with a total of 495 points.
After judo, the next most promising event is wrestling, the only sport in which the island has won gold medals in every Olympics held since Barcelona 1992. Cuba’s medal total (six gold, five silver, seven bronze) places the island 15th on the all-time table, headed by the former Soviet Union (80-31-23). Having already secured their tickets to Río are Beijing 2008 double and London 2012 gold medalist Mijail López (130kg); together with Ismael Borrero (59kg), champion of the Greco-Roman style at the Las Vegas 2015 World Wrestling Championships.
Taekwondo athletes from just fifteen nations have secured gold medals since the event officially became part of the Olympics in Sydney 2000. Beforehand, taekwondo featured as a demonstration sport in Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992. For Cuba, in tenth place on the all-time medal table (one gold, two silver, two bronze) only Ángel Volodia Matos has reached the top of the podium.
Ahead of Río, four Cuban hopefuls will give it their all at the qualifying tournament in Aguascalientes, Mexico this March; world champions Rafael Alba (+80kg) and Glenhis Hernández (+67kg), accompanied by José Ángel Cobas (80kg) and Yamicel Núñez (57kg).
To conclude we return to athletics. Cuba features 20th on the all-time medal table with a total of ten gold, fourteen silver and fifteen bronze medals. The previous competitive season and the beginning of the current one have seen new Olympic hopefuls including pole vaulter Yarisley Silva and discus thrower Denia Caballero, both world champions; as well as triple jumper Pedro Pablo Pichardo.
Dayron Robles in the 110 meter hurdles (12.93 seconds) was the island’s last Olympic champion at the Bird Nest stadium in Beijing 2008. Today, like so many other athletes, he is seeking to secure the standard required by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in order to qualify for the Games.
There are also high expectations for other Cuban athletes including gymnast Manrique Larduet, shooters Leuris Pupo and Eglys de la Cruz and rower Ángel Fournier.
This makes for a potential total of 10-15 athletes with real possibilities of securing gold in Río. It remains to be seen whether, once the curtain is drawn on the Olympic stage, they can combine the necessary elements to pull of such a feat.
