Borges and Nuevo celebrate victory

Tokyo, July 22 (RHC)-- Experienced figures carry the weight in Cuba's delegation to Tokyo-2020.  But young talent is always present in Cuban sports and five athletes under the age of 20 earned their place in the select Olympic group of 69 athletes.

Katherine Nuevo (canoeing) and Daniela Fonseca (table tennis) are the youngest of the delegation, both barely 18 years old.

Others who have not yet reached two decades of age are Yarisleidis Cirilo (canoeing) and athletes Léster Lescay (long jump) and Leyanis Pérez (triple jump), all three of whom are 19 years old.

Although achieving a medal would be a surprise for everyone, it is plausible the mere fact of having qualified for the Olympic Games, in an era with rigorous qualification processes, even more demanding due to the complications imposed by the coronavirus.

In the memory of many gray-haired Cubans, there are feats of adolescent boxers such as Bautista Hernandez, Olympic champion in Moscow-80 at the age of 17, and Armandito Martinez, winner of the same event at the age of 18, just to mention two of the most famous cases.

History has it that Greek gymnast Dimitrios Loundras is the youngest athlete to compete in the Olympic Games and also the youngest medalist, when he won bronze with the parallel bars team in Athens-1896 at the age of 10.

Tokyo-2020 brings together a host of prospects from several countries, loaded with talent and dreams.

Hend Zaza, a table tennis player from Syria, is the youngest of the more than 11,000 athletes at Tokyo-2020, at just 12, while Britain's Sky Brown, a skateboarding debutant, is 13.

But it seems that the child prodigy is a tough cookie.  Born to a British father and Japanese mother, Brown arrives in Tokyo after recovering from a skull fracture and has even declared that she is aiming for the Olympic gold medal.