Former Cuban swimmer Judith Rodríguez remembers her career and talks about her current life in Cape Coral

End of the 70s. In the starting block of the 25-meter pool of the capital's Pontón, a little person of just six years old was getting ready to conquer the future: it was Judith Rodriguez.

I remember that day as if it were today. I studied at the “Paquito González” primary school in Centro Habana and practiced swimming in the now completely destroyed Pontón.

I looked like a little flea but I learned to swim because I suffered a bitter experience in the pool at the Mar Azul hotel in Santa María; I almost drowned. Then my dad said I had to learn to swim and they took me to the Pontón to train with Professor Omar Cárdenas. I swam all four strokes with him until I specialized in backstroke. That's how Miguel Ángel Tirador, a coach of the national team, saw me and practically kidnapped me for “Marcelo”.

What becomes of that little swimmer today?

I have had a cleaning company for seven years called “Judy's Cuban Cleaning”; I clean everything that falls while there is money hahaha. I live in Cape Coral with a harmonious family that includes my daughter, her husband and my two grandchildren.

Woman with a strong temperament who crossed the continent from Ecuador, how many strokes did it take you to get to the United States?

I left Cuba for Ecuador on February 15, 2015 and lived there until July 17. I would have stayed but I couldn't legalize my presence and decided to make the journey with my daughter. We crossed six countries in a month and eight days until we entered through Laredo.

We lived in Miami for five months working with ornamental plants and on June 16, 2016 I came to Cape Coral, where I live and plan to continue living. I like this city, I am calm and happy.

Returning to the swimmer Judith, how old were you when you entered the “Marcelo Salado” School?

Nine years! I have been the youngest swimmer to enter that center that no longer even belongs to aquatic sports. They gave so much that they stole it from us.

And you drew attention to why?

Girl, with my small and thin physique, I had won school competitions at the provincial and national levels and they came to see me there; and I did not disappoint them. I was a little fish hahahaha

Did you continue with Tirador at school?

No, I was part of the children trained by Bonifacio “el Boni” who prepared me to compete in the fourth Caribbean Swimming Tournament that took place in the pool of the “Juan Abrantes” university stadium between April 12 and 15, 1982. .

At that time there was sport, there was mass. I won eight medals, two of them gold in the 50 meter freestyle and the 50 butterfly. At that time I still swam all four strokes although later I specialized in backstroke.

That test at the “Abrantes”, when I was nine years old, definitively opened the doors to the “Marcelo Salado”, where Armando Ríos “el Cuqui” trains me as a student.

From there he would begin an incessant career that began internationally in the Dominican Republic, then headquarters of the Central American and Caribbean Aquatic Sports Age Group. There I won eight medals: 2 gold, 5 silver and a bronze.

That was a fantastic time because, since our pool lacked heating, they sent us to Europe for training and competitions, mainly to Spain and Hungary. This happened between the years 1984-86. We also did preparation at the Aztec altitude.

What do you remember from that time?

Imagine, I was so tiny that I was among the top ten swimmers in Cuba; surrounded by Tania Cofigní, Pedro Hernández, José Raúl López, Luisa Mojarrieta, Rodolfo Falcón, who would be joined by Mayito González and Neisser Bent. As you see, it was a golden era, in which we loved “Marcelo” like our home.

And now that “Marcelo” no longer belongs to swimming?

How can I feel? The best generations of Cuban swimming were trained in that school. We were the only ones who did not move to Cerro Pelado.

That 50-meter pool was ours, where we trained the youth and senior national swimming teams. The polo players and synchro swimmers had another pool and the divers trained in the one at the Sports City. I always belonged to the senior preselection.

Your greatest success?

For me, that Central American and Caribbean age group in water sports where I won the two gold medals despite being so small is indelible for me.

What do you remember about “Marcelo”?

I have very good memories… even the bad ones! Ha ha ha. You know what it's like when you're taking a bath and they remove the water. You had to go with a jug to get water from the toilet tank, in addition to the broken bunk beds, the shortage of training trunks, there were not enough kicking boards (one group had to wait for the other to finish), poor conditions in the gyms. , lack of equipment.

Cuban inventions with car tires or wooden boards to replace essential sports equipment. When we traveled abroad we realized our disadvantageous conditions but… we were in the “Marcelo”! I remember the problems with visas when traveling, the delay in passports.

And even that plane flying over the Margarita Island airport in Venezuela, where we were not authorized to get off because the plane did not have permission, anyway! That was in 1983. The competition started and we had not been able to enter the hotel.

Now multiply that by a thousand and that is what our swimmers experience at the Baraguá Pool Complex. My time was a carnival. Now there is simply nothing. That is disgusting: painted tiles, who paints a tile?, ceilings that are removed and replaced, sunken trampolines... and I'm not talking about my pontoon!

I was there two years ago and my heart shook: the nail tank with pieces of the platform that fell and no one has picked them up; Stagnant rainwater, vector breeding ground. The 25 meter pool where I became a swimmer, full of worms to cry! And nobody cares.

And many swimmers came out of the Pontoon, most of whom are here or in other countries. What swimmers are going to exist?

Regarding current events, what do you know about the Cuban delegation to Paris?

Look, honestly, my thing is to work and live the best I can because there is only one life. That's why I know quite little but for me the possibilities are in Greco wrestling with Mijaín and the world champions, the men's judo, the shooter Leuris Pupo, the canoeists, the triple jumpers, some boxers (not like before when there were five or six).

I have read about the Voly Nations League and I hope they qualify but they have a very tough time. Yes, I tell you something: I wish the best in this world to the Cubans, wherever they compete, who will attend the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

You have made me relive moments of my life that filled me with joy and I hope moments like those and better ones can be experienced by our compatriots in the City of Light.