I had never been able to interview anyone living in Paris, the city of light, which has already become the world capital of the Olympics. And who would have thought that, as if fallen from the sky, I know Karel Negrete Vázquez, a former basketball player and friend of my dear Lieter Ledesma?
Karel is the son of Georgina Vázquez Payrol, a prominent player of the national basketball team in the 70s. Being the son of a legend in Cuban basketball, did it motivate you to practice the sport of basketball?
I was truly born immersed in the world of sports; my mom, as you already mentioned, was a member of the national basketball team that participated, among other events, in the Central American and Caribbean Games Panama 70 and the Pan American Games Cali 71. I breathed sports because, additionally, my dad is the well-known Dr. Eduardo Negrete Torres, a former 800-meter runner during the time of Juantorena and one of the most recognized sports doctors in Cuba. So, indeed, they greatly influenced my sports vocation.
You are a lawyer, you are a basketball coach, you live in Paris, and you have formed a beautiful family. Before we delve into your athletic childhood, what is your current situation in Paris?
As you say, I studied Law at the University of Havana, then I worked as a university professor in Political Theory and Political Philosophy in the Faculty of Economics and Social Communication. I was a professor of Political Economy in the municipalization. I did my mandatory social service as a prosecutor in the business system. In 2008, I met my wife Naiara in Cuba; she is French. After two years of going to Cuba, we got married and have been living in Paris since 2010.
Great leap, what are you doing in the French capital?
In France, I did a master's in Literature, I am a professor of Spanish Literature, and I also underwent federal training to become a basketball coach. I resumed my passion. I started as a player and then I was offered a coaching position. I trained as a coach here in France, I have a regional basketball coaching diploma; that means I can coach up to the regional (provincial) level.
For more than 10 years, I have been training clubs in Paris with good results, the best of which so far is being the municipal champion (department 94, Île de France) in the 14-15 years category. The level of basketball here is very good. It is the preferred sport of Parisians and French people in general, after football and rugby.
With great modesty, I have tried to learn from the French sport, which is very different from ours. We are very passionate; in France, it is much more calm, communication is very important, and the players are much more rational.
In Cuba, if we were told that we had to throw ourselves to look for the ball on the concrete floor, we wouldn't think twice. Here, they have all the conditions and resources, although on several occasions I have found myself in the situation of paying with my salary for the licenses of players who don't have money, and the club doesn't accept them if they don't pay. Not everything is rosy.
I have gone through all the categories; it requires a lot of studying, you have to be in training all the time. Basketball has changed; it is played more from the perimeter, one-on-one plays are used more, as well as the "pick and roll." Right now, I am taking a course to become a physical trainer for athletes.
Did the family grow?
Well, yes; in France, I started a family with my wife, with whom I have been married for 15 years, and I have two children: Diego, who is 8 years old, and Anna, who is 6. They are wonderful and very cute kids. Diego wanted to practice soccer because everyone called him Diego Maradona, and when he saw that soccer was very tough—here, at 6 and 7 years old, there are kids who play very good soccer—he immediately told me that he wanted to play basketball, hahaha. I didn't get upset because I escaped from watching the practices, in the rain and in the cold winter. He also plays the trumpet at the music conservatory.
Anna is in gymnastics; let's see if she likes it and continues. The coach told me that she has all the physical conditions for the sport. We'll see.
Around 50 athletes will represent Cuba in the upcoming Olympic Games, and another twenty will do so for other countries. Will you support them equally?
I will always support them all, a Cuban is a Cuban wherever they are. For me, the athletes who go with the Cuban flag are a source of pride; seeing them is an emotion, and... with other flags, the same.
When I was an athlete, I realized all the limits that were imposed on us, and although the situation has changed a bit now, there are still sports where hiring doesn’t exist. If we look at it, other countries have many athletes from other nationalities.
One is not only from where one is born and grows, but also from where one lives, develops, starts a family, works, etc. This happens to coaches as well. For example, the coach of the Uruguayan football team is Argentine; Iván Pedroso has created one of the best jumping academies in the world with a technical and training foundation from the Cuban jumping school.
What Pedroso does in Spain cannot be done in Cuba because the conditions are not right. Why not make a contract with Pedroso for Cuban athletes to train with him?
Long live them, let them work, and if later they want to compete for Cuba, may the homeland welcome them with pride. I do not consider it a problem; on the contrary, having three Cubans on the podium of a competition, as could happen in the triple jump in Paris, is a good thing.
Those athletes trained in Cuba and not in Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese sports schools. And it is a source of pride for every Cuban that these athletes achieve good results. Our athletes are not exempt from the economic crisis the country is going through; in addition to injustices, bureaucracy, and poor decisions. It is no longer like in the time of my mother and father, a generation that I admire and respect a lot. Many are already aging, others are dying, and often those who live do so in poor economic and living conditions.
The active life of an athlete is 10 to 15 years at best, if you don't get injured or have other personal problems. If you don't manage to progress financially during that time, thanks to your sports results, you know that afterward you won't be valued in the same way. It's the law of life and the law of sport.
Today, when the conditions are even more difficult, we must be much more flexible. The training of the athlete becomes tougher due to the economic conditions our country is experiencing. It is a hard process, due to the work and everything our parents have to do to ensure proper nutrition, because sports schools face significant problems with food. There are also issues with sports equipment and facilities. All the grassroots coaches who train champions without resources deserve a gold medal.
I listen to my interlocutor, and he really speaks with solid foundations of the reality that is taking shape at this moment in Cuban sports, and if I am not mistaken, Paris will be an unequivocal demonstration of that reality.
Upon reaching high performance, those who manage to achieve it despite hardships and calamities... it's not easy either! In Cuba, when traveling to training camps or international competitions, the number one and sometimes number two from each team go. And those are the trips they have throughout the entire year.
But numbers three and four from the national pre-selection are going nowhere, and with their records or quality of play, they would be champions in any Latin American country, where they could develop much more and under good conditions, participating in different events at their levels; and if they want later, they could return and compete in national events to qualify and represent the country.
If the State wants to regain the training of these athletes, contracts could be signed or a type of tax could be created for the prizes of high-performance athletes, licensed in the Cuban sports federations. That money would go to schools, EIDES, ESPAS, or sports facilities.
There is concrete evidence that many athletes would like to compete under the Cuban flag but without limitations on their sports career. Sports today is one of the most monetized sectors and has the most mobility.
The conflict between who you are and where you come from is something I've overcome. As an immigrant, you have to go through all those barriers and above all realize that Cubans are not the only ones who emigrate. We are from where we are born and from where we are welcomed, like Mexicans, Colombians, or Africans.
The cultural capital and education we possess gives us an advantage in migration. I built myself until I was 27 years old in Cuba, which means that my personality, my culture, and my education are Cuban; good, bad, or average, but it is what has served me on this long journey of migration. In France, I have had the opportunity to enhance everything I learned on the Island.
As I was saying, sports have evolved a lot in technology and training methods. But Cuban athletes have an extra that makes them different. It is the willpower that overcomes all obstacles. That mental strength is shown later, in competitions. Let’s hope it is displayed in Paris.
Example: the French national boxing team holds its training camps in Cuba. There is a documentary about it and one of the French boxers said: "we in France protest for what we don't have, but when we arrive here we see that with nothing they accomplish a lot."
This does not mean that it is okay to struggle; rather, conditions shape the human being. Just as I say that technology in sports helps to understand athletes, their performances, and preparation much better. Living conditions are also important. It is very difficult to compete while thinking that you have to sell things to make some money for the family or to pay rent. All of this affects performance and competitions.
I expect the best from the athletes in these Olympic Games and I always enjoy the medals they win, whatever they may be.
I take advantage of what you say about the benefit of having learned good things in your homeland. Tell me about your sports childhood.
My mom always supported me in my pursuits across various sports. I practiced judo and karate at the "Juan Abrantes" university stadium and swimming at the "Camilo Cienfuegos" circle pool during the years 1989-1990. I also ventured into fencing at the "Adalberto Gómez" primary school, where I had a teacher named Enrique Penabeya and another teacher whose name I don't remember, and we set up a suitable stage for practicing such a difficult discipline: some boxes served as mats for us. We had all the weapons: sword, foil, and saber.
We obtained good results, we competed a lot until we reached the Provincial Championship that took place at the Fencing School of Prado. I was a foil fencer and left-handed, which gave me an advantage. My mother was very happy because fencing is a very beautiful and elegant sport, in addition to her sentimental connection with her teammates who died in the Barbados plane crash.
Before continuing with our dialogue, I want to point out how in the 70s and 80s and part of the 90s, the conditions for mass sports were a beautiful reality in Cuba. A specialty as costly as fencing could be practiced at the school level, and now, even in the national team, there are difficulties.
I return with Karel, how was the transition from fencing to basketball?
Simple: the fencing and basketball practices didn't coincide, so I continued doing both sports, and believe me, I had a great time. I was tall, learned very quickly, and with the genetic information I had, it was enough. We participated in the inter-school competitions, and I joined the Plaza de la Revolución team; that’s where my passion for basketball truly began. At that time, basketball was also very popular.
How long did you maintain the duality of basketball - fencing?
Until the municipal basketball competition coincided with the fencing qualifiers in Prado. The issue was that in basketball we were discussing the advancement to the final, and in Prado, it was the qualifiers. I wanted to be at both, but it was impossible.
What did you do?
My mom told me: "you decide" ... And I decided, I went to the basketball game. That’s where my beloved, albeit very short, career on the court began. Looking back, I consider it a good decision; I had a lot of fun but took it very seriously, I wanted to progress, I trained hard. I started basketball at 11 years old, almost at the limit since it usually starts much earlier. I tell the kids who start later that, unless they're giants, they have to put in double the effort.
Basketball is one of the sports where being intelligent, skilled, and insightful is very important. Ball handling, shooting accuracy and technique, as well as game vision and reading, are skills acquired through a lot of hard work and over time, preferably from a very young age.
My advantage was my height: 1 meter 70 centimeters at the age of 11, plus I had very good hands and I was left-handed. That’s how I won for Plaza de la Revolución, a team led by Roberto Infante, until I was 15 years old. I joined the quintet of Ciudad Habana with coach Aldo, and we participated in the School Games. The conditions were not optimal, but we were happy.
That moment when we received the first jersey that said Ciudad Habana was incredible; plus, they were blue like Industriales and Capitalinos. They also gave us a pair of shoes to play, and the pride of representing the capital was very important to us. The generation of 1980-1983, which joined the youth team with the 78-79, dominated; but it wasn't just us, we were invincible in all categories. The same happened with the women's team; imagine we had Suchitel Ávila, Ariadna Capiró, Yulianne Rodríguez, Yayma Boulet, great Cuban players who continue to achieve success in other countries.
That good performance allowed me to enter the EIDE "Mártires de Barbados" in 1994, and that was a radical change in my life: living in a school where coexistence is very different, with different rules and behaviors; there I made very good friends whom I still keep today.
The 90s, known as the “Special Period,” were very tough for training athletes. The food was terrible; we had practically nothing to eat. Our meals consisted of noodle soup with rice and cabbage, or beans. Many times without the necessary proteins, we drank water with brown sugar to regain energy after training sessions. Parents would go on Wednesdays to bring us food, which was quite commendable, as it was almost what saved us until the weekend since we would leave on Fridays.
It was a very nice generation: the baseball players Yoandrys Urgellés and Yaser Gómez, the volleyball players Raidel Poey, Yimmy Roque, Yasser Portuondo, Yaima Ortiz, Nancy Carrillo, who later became members of the national teams, and other very good friends that life brought together later on different paths.
It was a generation with a lot of talent in different sports, and well, I was among them. For three years, I was a student representative of the EIDE, perhaps that's why some remember me, and at the same time, it was a stage in which my quality as an athlete was recognized since basketball was a sport followed by everyone.
At the EIDE, I was directed by Ricardo and Lázaro, and by that great coach, Eduardo Moya. They guided us and taught us the combativeness that must be had on the field, as well as the technical and tactical aspects, of course. In the three years of the school categories up to 15 and 16, we won all the national championships.
For four years we played in international tournaments; in 1994 I joined the national team 11-12, with coach Roberto Infante for the Pan American Children's Championship in Lima, Peru. I went on my first trip at the age of 12; it was the first time we took a plane, the first time we had a training camp. We got to know Lima and were hosted at one of its most famous clubs, Regata Lima.
In that Pan American Games, we won silver medals; we lost to our eternal rival, Puerto Rico. They have always been the team to beat for us in the region. The Puerto Ricans had very good technique and much more experience than we did.
As a anecdote, let me tell you that I was the top scorer and had the victory in my hands, but I missed a free throw. I missed the second shot and... we lost by one point! At 12 years old, I thought it was the end of the world.
I covered basketball for television and I remember those memorable Cuba-Puerto Rico Convivios.
The convivios represented a very interesting stage for the training of the cadet teams. It was the only way to compete since we were not given tournaments abroad, except for exceptions like Peru. Other invited countries participated in those Cuba – Puerto Rico convivios. The matches were broadcast on television.
We also went to Cerro Pelado a lot to play against the national women's team as part of their preparation for international competitions. There, I became very close friends with great players like Lupe León, Yaquelín Plutin, Tania Seino, Lisdeivis Víctores, Yamilé Martínez, Milaida Enrique, and Lisset Castillo.
It was a time when basketball became a sport that rivaled baseball. The "Ramón Fonst" Multipurpose Hall would fill up during the games of the Superior Basketball League. We, the younger ones, looked up to the senior teams as our role models.
We admired Leopoldo Vázquez, Roberto Carlos, and Rupertico Herrera, Flecha Amaro, Leonardo Matienzo, Lázaro Borrell, the Caballero brothers, Yudi Abreu, Zorro Casanova, José Luis Díaz (el pollo), Duquesne, Covarrubias, Roberto Simón, and many others. We also watched the NBA season on television, Jordan, Scotty Pippen, the Chicago Bulls, etc. It was a peak moment for Cuban basketball, and the good results of those years prove it. We tried to imitate the plays we saw, and watching that in younger categories made basketball very attractive and spectacular.
What happened that you didn't make it to the big team?
I didn’t grow any taller; I stayed at 1 meter 82 centimeters. It was a somewhat tough period for me. I learned to play as an organizing defender, but it didn’t come naturally; I was more of an attacker. For the ESPA, they were looking for tall players, and that’s when the coach of the National ESPA decided that I couldn’t advance.
It was a very hard blow; I was the only one who had played in the National Championship. They called others who hadn't made the team that year. It seemed unfair to me, and I went to the National Commission to demand, at the very least, to be in the pre-selection; I only asked for the opportunity.
They gave me a thousand excuses, you know how that works; in the end, they made me understand that the player prospect they were looking for was not mine. When they talked to me about a player prospect, I realized it was a matter of size.
I was eliminated early, so I decided to focus on my studies. I continued participating in provincial competitions. I started studying for the entrance exams and gained admission to the Law program at the University of Havana. My life took a turn because I lived for basketball, but at the University, I found several friends who had played with me, and we formed the university team.
We participated in the Inter-Faculty Games. The rivalry between the faculties of Economics, Psychology, History, and Law was very intense. I joined the university provincial team with which we won the national championship. We created a sports dynamic; those were years when the Caribbean Games were very vibrant at the University.
Your story is beautiful, and now with the satisfaction of being able to live in an Olympic city, what do you experience regarding that?
It’s a strange feeling because having the opportunity to be in Paris for the Olympic Games is a privilege; I would say, the realization of a dream. However, I feel little Olympic atmosphere. Perhaps the activities will start during the dates of the celebrations of the Games. Another thing is that the tickets are very expensive. Watching basketball costs between 100 and 500 euros, the opening ceremony no less than 600 euros, and rhythmic gymnastics, which I wanted to attend with my daughter, no less than 260 euros per person according to the ticket sales site for the games.
I believe that once they start, there will be many side activities that will create a festive atmosphere in this beautiful city. I will try to attend some events because the truth is that this is a unique opportunity. And if I have the chance, I will go to see the Cubans. I would love to pass on that love for sports to my children, and I will be lucky to have my mother here with me for that date.
What do you think?
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