The Cuban judoka Dayle Ojeda, who competes in the +78 kg category on the national team that would participate in the Paris Olympics, left the delegation days before the competitions were set to begin.
The portal Cubalite reported that the Havana athlete joined the numerous Cuban athletes who have detached themselves from national teams in 2024, after the training of judoka Idalys Ortiz, the top figure in the +78 kg division, with whose training she was collaborating, concluded.
Both were in Paris, and at the moment of returning to Cuba along with other judokas who had the same role, she decided to leave the training camp, the news site explained.
Ojeda, who will turn 31 in August, was a silver medalist in two editions of the Pan American Open in Varadero (2023 and 2024), where she was defeated on both occasions by her compatriot Naomis Elizarde.
She also participated in the 2017 Pan American Championship, where she lost in the bronze medal match against the American Nina Cutro-Kelly.
The first Cuban athlete to participate in the Olympic Games in Paris, which have not yet been officially inaugurated, was the archer Hugo Franco.
In judo, the competitors will be the Matanzas athletes Iván Felipe Silva and Andy Granda, the Artemisa athlete Idalys Ortiz, and the Santiago athlete Maylín del Toro.
The participant from Matanzas, Magdiel Estrada, had the possibility to compete, but he left the delegation in this year's Pan American and Oceania Championship in Brazil.
Likewise, the espirituana Mairelys Inojosa Polanco left the team in Europe during the tour of the Old Continent after the World Championship in Abu Dhabi at the end of May.
The exodus of Cuban athletes has increased in recent years amid the widespread crisis in the country.
At least 21 Cuban athletes will compete under other flags in the most important multi-sport event in the world.
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