Cuba and Latin America’s Best Athletes of 2018

Cuba’s Juan Miguel Echevarría, Caterine Ibargüen of Colombia and the Domadores de Cuba boxing team were the winners of the Prensa Latina’s annual sports survey that has been honouring the best athletes in Latin America and the Caribbean since 1964.

The Rise & Rise of Soccer in Cuba

By Yasiel Cancio, Photos: Marcelino Vázquez and Prensa Latina

Two decades ago soccer in Cuba was something decidedly remote and alien. Baseball, the national sport, was the only show in town for Cuban sports fans and soccer news was relegated to minority interest television coverage, almost always only during World Cups.

Flying on Decks

Text & photos: Jorge Luis Sánchez Rivera

Extreme sports as pastimes and as a way of life are less well-known in Cuba than elsewhere but still draw plenty of participants and spectators.

Volleyball: Cuban Women’s Team Aims to Rise Again

By Fidel Alejandro Manzanares Fernández Photos: Prensa Latina

The Cuban women’s volleyball team was number one in Latin America for three decades, taking numerous high profile titles at top international events.

Cuba’s Best of 2017 Pole Vaulter Silva and Boxer La Cruz

By Silvia Mayra Gómez Fariñas

Pole Vaulter Yarisley Silva and boxer Julio César La Cruz were voted best Cuban athletes in 2017. They were chosen through votes cast by representatives of the National Sports Institute, sports media and the Young Communist League. Cuban sports awards 2017: Best Team: Tamers of Cuba (Boxing) - Won Hamburg World Championships and Pan American Tournament, and placed second in the World Boxing Cuba’s Best of 2017 Pole Vaulter Silva and Boxer La Cruz Series.

Medal Sweep for Cuba’s Youngest Spells Bright Future

By Julio César Mejías Cárdenas, Photos: Prensa Latina

The Cuban delegation’s historic achievement at the recent World U18 Championships in the Kenyan capital Nairobi bodes well for further athletics success in the near future.

Sport and Science Team Up

By Alfredo Boada / Photos: Calixto Llanes

At the beginning of this year, sports authorities inaugurated the Cuban Sports Information Resource Centre, an institution that will enhance scientific sports development on the Island.

Omara Durand: focused on another golden season

By: Alejandro Martínez Martínez

After several seasons marked with world titles and records, limits seem nonexistent for the Cuban paralympic athlete Omara Durand, formerly in the T13 category and now in the T12 (severely visually impaired).

Cuban Gymnasts Aspire to Greatness

By Alfredo Boada / Photos: Roberto Morejón and Prensa Latina

Cuba hopes to have a complete and competitive world class gymnastics team, following Manrique Larduet’s impressive international results and the presence of three Cubans in the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. Cuban gymnasts had last participated in the Athens 2004 Games.

The Dolphin of Football

By Alfredo Boada / Photos: Roberto Morejón and Prensa Latina

He started as a water polo player and today holds a very unique record: mastery of the ball in the water. Jhoen Lefont Rodríguez (Matanzas, 1987), contrary to other athletes, had better control of the ball with his head than with his feet, ever since he began training at the age of 13.

The Jewels of Latin American Sport

By Yasiel Cancio Vilar

The fastest man on the planet did it again. For the third consecutive time, Usain Bolt won the sprinting Olympic gold medals - 100, 200 and 4x100 meter relay, standing out in Prensa Latina’s Sports survey, ‘Encuesta’.

Cuba in Rio-2016 With Boxing as the Flagship Sport

Photos: Roberto Morejón, Jit INDER

In the recent olympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Cuban boxing, having won five gold and three bronze medals, surpassed its performance of London-2012 and fulfilled the commitment that the team had previously set.

The Olympic Awakening...

By: Charly Morales Valido

If we drop any chauvinist opinions and see the Olympics as they should be, an ecumenical celebration, then we can say that Rio 2016 was a great event on all counts.

Billfishing Sixty-sixth International Ernest Hemingway Tournament

By: Roberto F. Campos, Photos: Abel Padrón Padilla, A.C. N.

Cuba is celebrating recreational boating, which was obvious this June at the Sixty-Sixth International Ernest Hemingway Billfishing Tournament.

Great Tournament and Great Sailing in Cuba

Cuba’s Ministry of Tourism (Mintur), involved in the promotion of recreational sailing on the island, reported that the 66th Ernest Hemingway Billfishing Tournament will take place from June 13 to 28 and that large numbers of American fishermen are expected.