Cuba’s History of Olympic Success

Cuba has captured the attention of the world many times over the years at the Olympics. Ever since their first Summer Olympics in 1900, hosted in Paris, they’ve made their mark. Let’s look at the facts:

• Cuba is the most successful of all countries that only participate in the Summer games
• They are second in the list of American countries for Gold medals (the USA is first)
• They have won more medals than any other Latin American nation and Canada
• Cuba has the fourth-highest number of medals from countries that haven’t hosted the games

The Medals in Numbers

Here are the number of times Cuban athletes have stepped up on the exclusive winner’s podium.

1. Number of Gold medals won: 84 across 11 sports
2. Number of Silver medals won: 69 across 13 sports
3. Number of Bronze medals won: 80 across 11 sports

Cuba’s Winning Sports

Check out the impressive number of Olympic medals won by Cuba in each sport.

Boxing: 73

Athletics: 42

Judo: 36

Wrestling – Greco – Roman: 14

Fencing: 10

Wrestling – Freestyle: 10

Weightlifting: 8

Taekwondo: 5

Baseball: 5

Volleyball: 5

Shooting: 4

Canoe Sprint: 3

Cuban moments that made history

Now let’s take a look back at some of the highlights from Cuba’s Olympic success.

Boxing to the top

You can’t talk about Cuba in the Olympics without mentioning Boxing. Cuba is famous around the world for its Olympic Boxing success. With 67 medals won to date and 34 of those gold. Cuba has won gold medals in every Olympics since 1972 (except 2008.) one of the most prolific moments was in 1972 in Munich when Teófilo Stevenson, Orlando Martínez and Emilio Correa dominated the boxing games. Winning gold for the welterweight, bantamweight, and heavyweight events.

Fencing for Gold

Going right back to 1900! 17-year-old Ramón Fonst from Havana was the first-ever Olympic Gold medalist from Cuba and Latin America. He then defended his title again in 1904 alongside fellow gold medalist Manuel Díaz.

A History of Success in Running

Cuba has had a long stint of success in Running in the Olympics. Going back to 1968 in Mexico City when Miguelina Cobián sprinted to Silver place in the 4x100m relay. This success continued in 1976 in Montreal when Alberto Juantorena was the first person to win the 400m and 800m sprint. He is the only athlete to have done this. This was followed by Ana Fidelia Quirot in 1992 in Barcelona who raced to Bronze in the 800 sprint.

The Best Cuban Olympics Performance Goes to…

The 1992 Oympics in Barcelona. In this impressive year for Cuban athletes, Cuba came in 5th in the overal medal count this year. With 14 Gold, 6 Silver and 11 Bronze medals.

The Most Gold Medals in Latin American Nations

Another historic moment was made in 2012 in London. Cuba racked up the most Gold medals amongst all Latin American nations. Most notably, winning Gold in Judo, Boxing and athletics.

10 Athletes that Made History

Let’s take a look at the Olympians that made Cuba so successful.

1. Mijaín López (Greco-Roman Wrestling)

López has competed in 2004, 2008 and 2012 (Athens, Beijing and London.) He took Cuba to the Gold in 2008 and 2012 in Greco-Roman Wrestling. In 2020 in Tokoyo he broke records by winning Gold and not losing a single point. He is the first wrestler to win 4 Gold medals and the 5th to win 4 Gold medals at the same individual event.

2. Teofilo Stevenson (Boxing)

Hailed as the greatest Olympic boxer of all time. He is just one of 3 boxers of all time to win 3 Olympic Gold medals. He was the first boxer to do this.

3. Felix Savón (Boxing)

Felix Savón is one of the other Olympic boxers to have won 3 Gold medals alongside Teofilo Stevenson. He won his titles in 1992, 1996 and 2000 in the heavyweight category. It is said that we would have likely won the 1988 title too, however, Cuba boycotted them that year,

4. Driulis González (Judo)

This Cuban athlete has won an incredible 4 Gold medals. She even took home the Gold in 1996. She is the first female to have competed at 5 Olympics.

5. Alberto Juantorena (Athletics)

He is the first athlete to win the 400m and 800m at the same race which made the world take notice. He was also the first Cuban to win Gold in Athletics.

6. Javier Sotomayor (Athletics)

Javier was famous for the High Jump. He won the Gold in 1992 and the Silver in 2000.

7. Regla Torres (Volleyball)

Named the best volleyball player of the 20th century. Regla has earnt that title, as a triple Olympic champion. She won her first Gold at just 17-years-old.

8. Ramón Fonst (Fencing)

In 1900 he won the Gold by winning 4 out of 6 of his matches. He was the first Cuban and Latin American medalist at the Olympics.

9. Pedro Luis Lazo (Baseball)

This Cuban pitcher has helped Cuba take home the Gold in 1996 and 2004 (Atlanta and Athens.) He also helped bring home the Silver in 2000 and 2008 (Sydney and Beijing.)

10. Idalis Ortiz (Judo)

Although she has competed in 2008, 2012 and 2016 and won medals. Idalis really impressed the world in 2020 in Tokoyo when she won the Silver medal.

With such a rich history of success in Cuba, you can be sure to see more history being made in 2024!

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