Cubans under other flags in Paris 2024: Neisser Loyola wants an Olympic medal, just like his dad.

This Sunday, coinciding with his 26th birthday, Cuban fencer Neisser Loyola makes his debut at the Paris Olympics representing Belgium.

He arrived in the European country at 16, but long before that, as a young child, he would take old television antennas and use them as swords with his neighborhood friends. This was not something new for him, as his father, Nelson Loyola Torriente, was a bronze medalist in that discipline as part of the team at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

The young athlete from Cienfuegos, one of the 21 Cuban athletes competing under other flags in Paris, had a brief but intense career in his homeland.

"I was the champion of Cuba for three consecutive years, and at 14 years old, they wanted to move me up to the senior team. However, my dad, who was already a coach for the national team of Belgium, didn't want me to move up and ultimately completed the paperwork for family reunification so we could go there with him," he recounted in an interview.

Neisser joined the Belgian national team when his father obtained citizenship, but due to immigration regulations, he had to wait two more years and could not participate in official competitions. Although he could not join the senior team, he played in the cadet category. Thanks to efforts from the fencing federation, he was able to join the Army as an athlete and then became a full-time professional.

In July 2022, he went to a World Championship for the first time and won bronze. As Le Dernière Heure reported at the time, this achievement was not only extremely important in his career, but also something historic for Belgium, which had not won medals at these events since 1951.

Since then, the victories have not stopped, and so far he has been the sword champion in his country four times. He won bronze at the 2022 Fencing World Championship in the individual event and in 2023 he took silver at the Grand Prix in Doha, Qatar.

Loyola lives in Arlon with his wife, Ksenia, and their son Teylor, born in 2020.

"My goal is to go to the Olympic Games, and if possible, to have a medal like my dad. Being an Olympic champion would be like touching the sky; it's the best result an athlete can achieve. (…) I have the means to be one of the best in the world, and I will do everything possible for that," he assured RTBF.