Yusneylis Guzmán Cuban Olympic medalist leaves delegation in Mexico, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Yusneylis Guzmán, a Cuban Olympic medalist, has reportedly separated from Cuba’s delegation while in Mexico. The silver medalist from the Paris 2024 Olympics was traveling to a training base in Brazil when she used her stop in Mexican territory to break away from the group and go her own way.
So far, neither the Instituto Nacional de Deportes, Educación Física y Recreación (INDER) nor the Cuban Wrestling Federation has publicly explained how Cuba’s top female athlete of the year disappeared from view. The departure is a significant blow to the sporting establishment, as Guzmán won silver in the 50-kilogram division and also earned gold medals at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago and the Central American Games in San Salvador.
Reports describe Cuba as facing a severe economic crisis, including shortages of food and medicine and daily blackouts. High-performance athletes reportedly train in deteriorated facilities without modern equipment.
The publisher reports that authorities withhold much of athletes’ salaries when they compete abroad and require them to route all income through official federations, which the report says makes international travel an opportunity to defect, seek independent contracts and send money to their families.
Guzmán’s case follows a pattern seen during the Paris Olympics. Before the Games opened, judoka Dayle Ojeda (+78 kg) reportedly left her team in Paris and disappeared.
Other athletes, including Magdiel Estrada and Mairelys Inojosa, have also reportedly chosen to leave their teams and compete under other flags, raising the number of island athletes who have made similar decisions to more than 20.
