Cuba at the 2004 Summer Olympics
| Cuba at the 2004 Summer Olympics |
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| IOC code | CUB | ||||||||
| NOC | Cuban Olympic Committee | ||||||||
| in Athens | |||||||||
| Competitors | 151 in 18 sports | ||||||||
| Flag bearer | Iván Pedroso | ||||||||
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Medals Ranked 11th |
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| Summer Olympics appearances (overview) | |||||||||
Cuba competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, from 13 to 29 August 2004. This was the nation's seventeenth appearance in the Olympics, except for some editions. Cuban athletes did not attend in two Olympic Games (1984 and 1988), where they joined the Soviet and North Korean boycott. Cuban Olympic Committee sent the nation's smallest delegation to the Games since 1972. A total of 151 athletes, 97 men and 54 women, competed in 18 sports. Men's baseball and women's volleyball were the only team-based sports in which Cuba had its representation at these Olympic Games. There was only a single competitor in archery.
The Cuban team featured seven defending Olympic champions from Sydney: taekwondo jin Ángel Matos in the men's welterweight division, the women's volleyball team (led by Yumilka Ruíz), boxers Mario Kindelán and Guillermo Rigondeaux, Greco-Roman wrestler Filiberto Azcuy, sprint hurdler Anier García, and long jumper Iván Pedroso, who later became the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony. Among the champions, Kindelan and Rigondeaux only managed to defend Olympic titles in their respective weight categories. Skeet shooter Guillermo Alfredo Torres, the oldest athlete of the team at age 45, became the first Cuban athlete to compete in five Olympic Games since 1980; meanwhile, judoka Yamila Zambrano was the youngest of the team at age 18.
Cuba left Athens with a total of 27 Olympic medals (9 gold, 7 silver, and 11 bronze), failing only two golds short of the total record achieved from Sydney. Eight of these medals were awarded to the athletes in boxing, six in judo, and five in athletics. Cuba's team-based athletes proved successful in Athens, as men's baseball and women's volleyball teams won gold and bronze medals, respectively. Among the nation's gold medalists were Osleidys Menéndez, who previously won the bronze in Sydney and also, became the first non-European athlete to claim an Olympic title in women's javelin throw since María Caridad Colón did so in 1980. On August 23, 2004, the International Olympic Committee stripped off Russia's Irina Korzhanenko shot put title after failing the doping test for stanozolol, and the gold medal was subsequently awarded to Yumileidi Cumbá at the conclusion of the Games.
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