Cuba: Youth Olympics athlete dies after training accident

A shocking incident occurred in Cuba, where Youth Olympics hammer thrower Alegna Osorio has died from head injuries sustained in a training accident, the Cuban national sports institute said on Thursday.

File pic
File pic

Cuba: A shocking incident occurred in Cuba, where Youth Olympics hammer thrower Alegna Osorio has died from head injuries sustained in a training accident, the Cuban national sports institute said on Thursday.

According to the latest input, The 19-year-old Osorio was struck by a hammer at a track and field stadium in Cuba in April.

“We share this unbearable pain with her family,” said Osvaldo Vento, the president of Cuba’s national sports institute.

Osorio placed fourth in the girls’ event at the 2018 Buenos Aires Youth Olympics and took bronze at the Pan-American under-20 championships two years ago.

The teenager’s death was noted at the Tokyo Olympics by United States hammer thrower Gwen Berry ahead of her event starting on Sunday.

“Sending love to her family during this time. This is so sad,” Berry wrote on her Twitter account.

Cuba 1st participated in the Olympic Games in the year of 1900, and has sent athletes to fight in 20 of 28 Summer Olympic Games overall. Cuban athletes have proudly won a total of 226 medals at the Summer Olympics (78 gold, 68 silver, 80 bronze).

Cuban athletes have never taken part in the Winter Olympic Games. Cuba is the most victorious Olympic team (by total medals won) amongst those nations that have never played at Winter Olympics.

Cuba is in the 2nd position of American nations in Summer Olympics gold medals (trailing only the US), and has won more medals than any country in Latin America. 

Interestingly, Cuba has yet to have hosted the Olympic Games. Cuba has won the fourth-highest total number of medals (after Hungary, Romania, and Poland) of nations that have never hosted the Games.

The National Olympic Committee for the country is the Cuban Olympic Committee, and was created in 1926 and recognized in 1954.

Cuba is located where the northern Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico, and the Atlantic Ocean meet.