Published Monday, August 21, 2000, in the Miami Herald
Cuba puts athletes in a bind
News flash from officials of the Olympic Games: Cuba is acting as if it were a totalitarian state.
That seems to astonish Olympic Committee heads in the United States, Spain and Mexico, who were recently advised that Cuba is blocking four Cuban-born athletes from competing for their adopted countries in the upcoming games.
Today the U.S. Olympic Committee will try to convince the International Olympic Committee to let Miami's Angel Pérez do what he does best: kayak for a medal with the U.S. team. Fairness dictates the IOC should agree to waive rules stipulating that athletes must be citizens of the country
they represent for at least three years before competing. Exceptions are routine when a home country and other Olympic committees agree.
Mr. Pérez came to the United States seven years ago and since has been training relentlessly for Olympic competition. He is a U.S. citizen but not for three years. Cuba has made it quite clear it will not agree to Mr. Pérez's participation.
Cuba has also said No to Niurka Montalvo, world champion long jumper, and to Iván Pérez, water polo champ. Both want to compete for Spain, where both are now citizens. That Spain had the temerity to broach the subject of waiving the rule prompted Cuba to ship to Italy some 15
Cubans Olympians who had been training in Spain. That obstinate attitude moved the head of Spain's Olympic Committee to opine that Cuba was acting like a "totalitarian'' country. Indeed, it does and is.
Mexico, however, has the right idea. Though Cuba won't allow Lilliana Allen Doll to run, Mexico's Olympic delegation chief says that, under its interpretation of its constitution, she became a Mexican citizen when she married one in 1997.
The International Olympic Committee ought to be as creative. In keeping with the Olympic spirit of individual triumph -- IOC ought to find a way to give a break to athletes held hostage by a spiteful, totalitarian homeland.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald | 