The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), on a working visit to Cuba, presented this Friday the organization's Gold Medal to the Cuban leaderMiguel Diaz-Canel.
The distinction, accordingWHICH, recognizes the supposed support of the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba “for the international Olympic movement.”
“Sport can build many bridges,” said Díaz-Canel upon receiving institutional recognition from the IOC president, Mr.Tomas Bach.
Cuba is an "important country" for sports because of the Olympic medals it has achieved, Bach said. "Cubans can be very proud of their great successes," he added.
Asked about Russia's participation or not in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, the manager considered that "it is too early" to make a decision on the matter.
In this sense, he explained that consultations are being held with the Olympic committees of all countries and with the different sports federations to "consider everything" about the situation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions in the coming months.
“An honor to receive Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, and the important sports executives who accompany him on his visit to Cuba. We remember great moments of Cuban sport, we talk about its perspectives and we reiterate our support for the IOC,” the Cuban president expressed on Twitter.
For his part, Bach declared to international media that his visit to Cuba has helped him "learn from their preparations for the Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games."
Arriving in Havana this Thursday, the IOC president described his visit to the island as "intense, but perfect." Bach participated in a meeting of the executive committee of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC) and attended the inauguration of a multipurpose court at the Ciudad Deportiva Coliseum, as well as a synthetic track installed at the Pan American Stadium in Havana, among other activities. .
“Cuba has won 235 medals in the Olympic Games with a population of 11 million inhabitants, I think that is an Olympic record,” Bach said during one of his interventions.
That's what diplomacy has, who in order to persuade his interlocutors can even ignore statistics in his speeches.
Bach is wrong in his calculations: Cuba has one Olympic medal for every 46,808 inhabitants; while Jamaica, for example, has one medal every 32,505. Jamaica wins and - whatever the IOC's negotiations with Cuba - if it has to do with Russia, Bach will have to compose new sonatas for the Palace of the Revolution.
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