Cuban boxer Arlen López denied the statements made by the national commissioner of that sport, about the cause of his exclusion from the list of the 10 most outstanding national athletes of 2021.
The Guantanamo boxer, who won the gold medal in the 81 kilograms at the Tokyo Olympics,He was not included among the best athletes in the country, as punishment for refusing to attend the World Championship in Belgrade, as Alberto Puig de la Barca explained to the digital portalJit.
"There was consensus in considering that his mistake undermined the team's commitment, and as an educational measure his presence in that relationship was not endorsed, even though he has the very high merit ofhaving won his second Olympic gold"concluded the commissioner.
The boxer's response to the official's words was immediate.
In an extensive text shared on his Facebook wall, which is no longer published, Arlén clarified that he could not go to the World Cup in Belgrade in October because he was infected with coronavirus, but that at that time the boxing commission understood it and no one informed him. that would remove it from the list of the best of the year.
The young man described the measure taken with him as "unjustifiable", because his absence from the event was not due to rejection of Cuba's sporting interests, much less boxing.
"My absence at the World Cup is well known to have been due to the pandemic. Unfortunately the pandemic managed to reach me and by then I was not the same person, I was not the same athlete, I did not feel even remotely in the conditions that I demonstrated in the Olympic Games of Tokyo. I wanted to overcome those difficulties, those discomforts, but I am not invincible nor am I a super human," he clarified.
According to the boxer, he raised his situation with the head coach and the coaches, who supposedly understood his case. The decision was made that he would not participate in the World Cup since he could not prepare in optimal conditions, something that the commissioner himself accepted.
"Another thing that I want to make very clear is that, while I was in Guantanamo on vacation, I was made the offer if I wanted to participate in the World Cup, but I, as an athlete that I am, of course I accepted it and more than that, since "The economic value that that event represented was known. Even though I had many personal problems that had not been resolved for eight years, I left my family behind once again and joined the training center, where the pandemic caught me," he said.
"This is how things happened. I come back and repeat that I did not betray my team, nor the people, nor the country, I had a health problem that, thank God, I am now completely recovered and ready for the third Olympic crown. But, I repeat, I had a health problem and I presented it, I returned home with the answer that everything was fine, not that I was excluded from any event, much less from among the best athletes of the year," he added.
Finally, Arlén recalled that he has always taken the step when his team and the sports system needed it.
"My merits and my achievements come with sacrifice, they are not given. I deserved, or deserve, that position because I earned it and contributed to boxing and the country, (in addition to) being another glory of the sport and a true gladiator" , he assured.
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