Cuban Olympian Defects to the United States While En Route Ffrom World Championships

Yaimé Pérez from Cuba is one of the best Discus Throwers in the world. She has gained fame in her sport, winning the World Championships in Qatar in 2019 and also the Ibero-American Championships in Spain earlier this year. She is also a bronze medalist in the Olympic Games, representing Cuba.

However, while on her way home from the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, Pérez abandoned her Cuban team and defected to the United States during a stopover in Miami.

According to infobae, it was not exactly clear where she left the Cuban delegation, but she disappeared during a stopover at the Miami airport while waiting for their flight back to Cuba. After leaving Oregon, they had a flight to Phoenix before riding another plane to Miami, where she defected.

Yaimé Pérez Was Considered One of Cuba's Most Important Athletes

Cuba usually does great in Athletics, as Yaimé Pérez herself was a former discus world champion. This year, however, she was not able to defend her world title at Eugene, Oregon, as she only placed seventh. As the defending world champion and Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, she was supposed to be one of the favorites to win.

Pérez, 31, is a native of Santiago de Cuba. She is also considered the most important athlete in the Cuban Federation, so her defection really hits them hard. She was so important that Cuba made her their first Olympic flagbearer.

Her other accolades include the championship at the 2019 Pan American Games and 2018 Central American and Caribbean Games. She first made waves in 2010, winning gold at the World Junior Championships in Canada. She became a regular at the Podium in many other competitions and represented Cuba thrice in the Olympics, the highlight being her bronze medal-winning performance in Tokyo.

As of writing, Cuba has not yet officially confirmed her defection.

Yaimé Pérez, the Latest Cuban Athlete to Defect

Yaimé Pérez is the latest high-profile athlete to defect from Cuba. Just days prior, another athlete, 19-year-old javelin thrower Yiselena Ballar also defected. However, unlike Pérez, Ballar defected while on her way to Oregon for the World Championships.

Also abandoning the team is physiotherapist Carlos González, who also disappeared the very same day as Pérez. According to the BBC, Cuban officials called their defections "serious indiscipline."

2022 had not been a good year for Cuba, as more and more athletes are defecting. The biggest name is Olympic wrestling gold medalist Ismael Borrero, who abandoned the Cuban delegation in Mexico during the Pan-American Wrestling Championships.

Olympic long jump silver medalist Juan Miguel Echevarría also defected, along with gold medalist canoeist Fernando Jorge.

Cuban Athletics Federation President Alberto Juantorena said that the departure of many of their top athletes was due mainly to their greed. He said that they changed their jerseys for monetary reasons.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

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