Cuban High Efficiency at Chile 2025

If there is one thing that characterizes Cuban athletes, it is that they are eternal fighters, capable of facing any challenge, no matter how large it may seem, and the VI Youth Parapan American Games Chile 2025 are no exception.

At this event, which was attended by over 1,100 athletes from 27 nations, the largest of the Antilles arrived with a small delegation of just 28 athletes in the sports of para-athletics, para-judo, para-powerlifting, and para-table tennis. However, the efficiency shown by this contingent is worthy of applause.

In the Bogotá 2023 edition, the Cuban team finished in eighth place, with a haul of 11 gold, 7 silver, and 3 bronze medals. Now, things have gone better for the Cubans, who achieved one gold medal, two silver, and one bronze on the first day of para-athletics. This marked the beginning of a highly efficient performance, where capitalino Daumey Elizalde had the honor of being the first Cuban to win gold, by prevailing in the 100 meters T46 class (Under-20 years), in a race where another Cuban, the villaclareño Jairon Bouzá, took the silver medal.

Cuba obtained two other medals that day, thanks to the performances of the camagüeyana Tairemy Navarro (T11-total blindness), who, alongside her guide Marcos Antonio Roldán, won silver in the 100 meters. The pinareño Osbiel Palacios earned a meritorious bronze in the 100 meters of the T46 category (Under-17 years).

The final day of para-athletics could not have been better for the team from the Greater Antilles, as they continued to add medals until finishing with a total of 8 gold, 8 silver, and two bronze medals. This far surpassed the five gold, two silver, and three bronze medals from para-athletics in Bogotá 2023.
If the rest of the members of the Cuban delegation can maintain an efficiency similar to that of the para-athletes, it is very likely that the total medal count achieved by Cuba in Bogotá 2023—22 medals, of which 11 were gold, 7 silver, and 4 bronze—can be improved.

All of this is happening while the eight Cuban representatives in the para-powerlifting competition have yet to enter the fray—they are scheduled to begin their events starting November 7th—and are called to have a competitive efficacy that is equal to, or even superior to, the current performance. The other potential for medals will lie in the performance of the Cuban representative in para-judo.

For the moment, we can say that the performance of the Cubans in Chile 2025 is characterized by high efficiency, and the possibilities of surpassing, both in quality and quantity, what was achieved in the preceding edition, are real.