"You all know what is happening in sports. You know that we have athletes who are worth millions on the sports market. There may be the odd one who gives in and sells his soul for money, like a Judas –-to use a biblical example. However, it must be kept in mind that there are also a large number of athletes here who live modestly and whose incomparable dignity and love for their homeland and their people lead them to turn down any amount of money they may be offered".
Quotes
“To begin with, I will say that neither in the first or the second half of this century nor at any other time in history has a country done or achieved as much in sports as Cuba in an extremely short period of time. And it is a small Third World country, one that is additionally subjected to an economic blockade by the wealthiest and mightiest nation on Earth as well as to a thousand different forms of harassment and aggression”.
“Sports require discipline, and they teach children and young people a great deal about discipline, resistance, stability, perseverance and courage. They help build character and promote better health and physical and mental development”.
“An Olympic athlete is not a lowly instrument used to gain international prestige, an object to be bought and sold on the market, a commodity to be used and then thrown into the garbage. Athletes are, first and foremost, human beings, with mothers and fathers, spouses and children, brothers, sisters, friends and fans as well as pride in the recognition they have earned through their efforts and extraordinary merit. They have honor, above all, honor. Those who have never competed for money have competed and triumphed for honor alone. Honor is worth more than life, because life without honor is meaningless”.
"We will establish, with the utmost urgency, a modern and efficient doping control laboratory that will cooperate with the countries of the region that require it. Likewise, as we have done in the field of medicine where we are also a major force, we will not only contribute to the development of sports through cooperation with Cuban specialists but are also seriously considering the establishment of a Latin American and Caribbean school of physical education and sports, so that these nations will have their own specialists to promote this noble and healthy activity in their own countries".
“The world will change; that is unavoidable. But our duty is to help it change, the sooner the better, without waiting for the crisis to act as a big bang that is still propelling stars to infinity.”
“Our country has created an enormous human potential, because paper was not used for gossip magazines, or for advertising; our resources were not invested in such things. Instead they were invested in training doctors, so that we became the country with the highest per capita index of doctors in the world; we invested in training teachers, so that we would have the highest per capita index of professors and teachers in the world; physical education and sports teachers were trained, who devote themselves to comprehensive education and training, not professional sport, so that we have achieved the highest per capita index of all the countries in the world; perhaps in the number of researchers and scientific personnel, and other fields, we are also among the top few.”
“Cuba is the one country in the world that collaborates most in helping to develop sport in the Third World. There is a growing number of trainers on contracts who are working in sister countries and doing an excellent job. We also continue to take in new students and future trainers. Our coaches are training athletes who will compete against us, in fair competitions, and we shall continue to do so.”.
"There can be no highly developed education or medicine, or even well developed sports, without the support of science".
"To speak of exercise and sports is not to speak of world and Olympic champions, it is to speak of daily, ongoing well-being, it is to speak of a good health, it is to speak of the capacity for study and work. To speak of physical education and sports is to speak of a science, a universal activity".
"To speak of physical exercise and sports is to speak of health; it is to speak of discipline, of forming young people’s character, of healthy habits, of the battle against drugs. Sports are the antithesis of drugs; sports are the antithesis of alcoholism. Sports and physical exercise are a preventive remedy for many illnesses that can kill or disable, such as obesity, or a decrease in a person’s faculties".
"Healthy sport practices are incompatible with consumerism and wastefulness, phenomena which are at the root of the irreversible economic and social crisis facing the globalized world".