Page 51 - Olympism in Socialism

record in 800 metres; Alejandro Casanas,
Olympic runner-up and world record holder in
the 110 metres hurdles; the sprinter Silvio
Leonard; and others, have placed Cuba on the
sports map of the world.
Teofilo Stevenson, double Olympic and world
heavy-weight champion heads a group of notable
Cuban boxers who rank among the best
internationally.
The bronze medal won by the men’s team in
the Olympic Games in Montreal, and the silver
medal won in the women’s tournament held in
Japan for the World Cup, have also consolidated
Cuba’s well-earned prestige in volleyball.
Nor should one forget the bronze Olympics
medal won by the Cuban basketball team in
Munich in 1972.
Cuban sportsmen have also won notable
laurels in judo, underwater fishing, weightlifting
and other items. All this is in sharp contrast with
Cuba’s performances before the triumph of the
Revolution in 1959, when, with the exception of a
few individuals, it had hardly any achievement to
its credit.
Sports in Cuba began to make progress only
from 1959. Its first advances were slow, due to
the backwardness of Cuban sports at the time of
the revolutionary government’s victory.
One may say that sports then was practically
at the zero level. Only baseball was widely played,
on a professional basis, with a majority of foreign
players.
The failures of the Cuban contingent in the
Pan-American Games in Chicago (1959) and in
the Olympic Games in Rome (1960) showed how
low the level of Cuban sports had fallen.
Faced with these failures the revolutionary
government created a new sports structure, and

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