HAVANA– The Cuban Olympic Committee demanded this Tuesday the “immediate exclusion” of an island athlete who was included by the organizers as part of a team of refugees that will participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Last May, the International Olympic Committee announced that 37 athletes from 11 countries will compete in the Paris Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.
The team was created to Rio Olympics in 2016 as a symbol of hope and draw attention to the plight of refugees around the world.
It will be the first time that Cubans will participate: Fernando Dayán Jorge, canoeist who won the gold medal in the 1,000-meter canoe sprint at Tokyo 2020, and weightlifter Ramiro Mora, who currently live in the United States and Great Britain, respectively .
Since May, Cuba has opposed the inclusion of both in the team and said the IOC made a mistake by “mixing oil and vinegar” because these athletes were not persecuted or uprooted and made the decision to emigrate.
“Unfortunately, one of the two athletes included made disrespectful and fallacious political statements against his country, his people and the sports movement that allowed him to become Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020”, reads the official statement from the Cuban Olympic Committee released Tuesday. fair.
The statement did not mention the athlete’s name, but the canoeist has spoken out strongly against the Cuban government since abandoning his delegation while competing in Mexico to cross the border and settle in the United States.
“The COC has the obligation to publicly denounce this situation and demand the immediate expulsion of the aforementioned athlete from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in accordance with the rules that govern the International Olympic Movement”, states the statement. “None of these Cuban athletes are uprooted by war or persecuted.”
Dayán declined to comment on the COC petition.
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