Olympic prowess: What’s socialism got to do with it?

Cuba is a small country. With only 11 million people, it ranks 138th in population in the world.

However, Cuba sent 167 athletes to the Beijing Olympics, making it 20th among the 204 participating countries.

And those athletes won Cuba 12th place in medals, outstripping every other country in the Western Hemisphere—except for the U.S., with a population of 300 million.

How did they do it? Under their socialist system, Cubans enjoy free health care, education and recreation facilities. Life expectancy there has risen from age 58 in 1959, the year of their revolution, to 78 in 2007. (UN Human Development Index)

But Cuba still lives in the looming shadow of the U.S., the world’s richest, most powerful and aggressive imperialist nation, which backed the brutal dictator overthrown by the Cuban people in 1959. Since then, Cuba has suffered U.S. political and economic blockades; terrorist bombings of commercial air flights and tourist hotels; enemy night flights dusting crops with poisons, pests and diseases; U.S. millions annually directed at “regime change;” and 638 assassination attempts on its incomparable revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro.

The U.S. Olympic team, which was first in total medals and second (after China) in gold medals, included 33 foreign-born athletes. The U.S. government’s recognition of these athletes is in sharp contrast to its brutal workplace raids and deportations of other immigrants. (USA Today, July 18) Team USA also owes a “thank you” to the battle for civil rights of decades past. The absence of its many high-achieving Black and Brown members would have substantially diminished the U.S. medal number.

There are those—some in sorrow, some with a smirk—who note that in previous Olympics the Cubans achieved an even higher ranking. They were fifth in Atlanta (2000) and ninth in Athens (2004), compared with 12th this year. In a recent article, Castro said that five Cubans who had been expected to win gold medals for their country had been lured elsewhere by big money. He noted that the Cuban Adjustment Act, the U.S. law that provides a special procedure for Cubans to become U.S. citizens, “encourages the theft of Cuban athletes.”

Speaking on sports in Cuba, he pointed out that “Cuba is the only country where professional sport is not practiced.” He spoke proudly of its great International School of Sports and Physical Education that has “graduated thousands of youths from Third World countries [and] presently accommodates 1,500 students absolutely free of charge.”

The success of Belarus at the Olympics is also noteworthy. A former member of the Soviet bloc still striving toward socialism, Belarus ranked right behind Cuba in 13th place in number of medals. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea shared 30th place with eight other countries, and was trailed by 49 nations, many richer and larger.

Cuba’s excellence in sports is also seen in the Pan American Games where it has an all-time medal count of 1,793, which is second only to the U.S. with its all-time medal count of 3,916. Anticipating those games in 2012, 2016 and beyond, how sweet will be the successes of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Paraguay and other Latin American and Caribbean countries whose people want to follow the Cuban path. And certain it is that no one will rejoice more enthusiastically than the Cubans.

During the television coverage of the Beijing games a picture of Mao Zedong was often seen in the background—a poignant reminder of the Long March and the Great Chinese Revolution, without which there could be no Bird’s Nest, no Water Cube, no 110 gold medals, no unsurpassed opening and closing ceremonies—no People’s China rising to a world power.