CUBAN ATHLETES

Since 1959 there has been an official ban on photographing any national sports heroes here. For more than forty years, most of Cuba’s great athletes went without any fame, much less photographs for that matter. My hope was to have portraits taken of Cuba’s heroes, have exhibitions throughout the country, and get their stories and their portraits into textbooks so Cuban children could learn about these heroes and begin again to record the many great athletes this island was producing.

September in Cuba is what hell must feel like. It was so humid that I became hot, smelly, sticky, and sweaty moments after stepping out of my morning shower and heading off to the Olympic training center for a month of photographing these amazing superstar athletes. I have spent twenty years in the United States photographing our country’s top athletes for their multi-million-dollar endorsements, and the unbelievable childish behavior of many of these athletes could benefit from seeing the behavior of these ever-respectful and appreciative Cuban superstars. There I was, among the grace of the great athletes: boxer Teofilo Stevenson Lawrence, three-time Olympic gold medal winner and three-time world champion; boxer Felix Savon, another three-time Olympic gold medal winner and six-time world champion; the amazing track and field stars Alberto Juantorena Donger, Ana Fidelia Quirot, Javier Sotomayor Sanabria, Ivan Pedroso, and Mariza Marten Garcia…to name just a few. All held more medals and world championships than most would ever think it possible to achieve in a single career. There were also great baseball stars, like Conrado Marrero Ramos, a two-time no hit, no runs pitcher, Luis Giraldo Casanova, Jorge Luis Valdes, and Antonio Jimenez Casa del Valle.

Then there was the beautiful female volleyball players, all stunningly gorgeous, all superstars in their game – Regina Torres Herrara, Ana Ibis Fernandez Valle, Josefina Capote Izquierdo, Imilsis, Telles, Yumika Ruiz Luances, and Marta Sanches Salfron. All of these women have been on the Cuban teams that have dominated this sport worldwide. And that was just the beginning of the long list of wondrous stars I would soon meet, embrace, laugh, and trade stories with for the next thirty days – all these sports superstars with no egos, no endorsement deals, and no money, but who live a life filled with grace, contentment, and rich memories of winning for their true love, their country.