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• 01 / 05 / 2010

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Between August 14th and 26th, the Cuban sports will face a great challenge: the First Youth Olympics to be held in Singapore.

The world competition will consist of 184 events in 26 sports in which, according to estimates, some 3.500 athletes (14 to 18 years old) from 170 countries will attend.  Competition may not be the main goal, but the right to compete there.

Qualifications will be rather difficult, because the International Olympic Committee (IOC) limited the number of participants to avoid gigantism, and for example, in various combat disciplines, each country can only send four athletes, and the maximum number of athletes per nation in swimming is going to be eight.

The measure seeks above all to achieve representation of most IOC member nations, and therefore, it will be more difficult to obtain the ticket to attend the event because some of the qualification tickets were given in World Youth Championships.

Cuba already has some qualifications: the soccer team U-17, invited by the organizers, a gymnast, a wrestler, a judoka, a canoeist, and a rower, but none in the Pan American Rhythmic gymnastics championship held in Havana.

All this suggests that Cuba will not have a very large delegation, though we could increase the number of participants if some athletes won their tickets in the remaining qualifying events. Our delegation may be the largest among Latin American countries.
 
It could be said that it is going to be more difficult to attend than to win a medal. The number of athletes in each discipline and the priority given to the representation may help to reach this conclusion.

Anyway, beyond the medals, the most important aspects for Cuban athletes will be the training of our athletes, potential figures of the future, something that economic difficulties veto in most sport disciplines.

Source: Cubasí