Olympic champion Ismael Borrero leaves Team Cuba in Mexico
Ismael Borrero, Olympic champion in the discipline of Greco-Roman wrestling in Rio de Janeiro 2016, abandoned the Cuban delegation that will participate in the Pan American Championship of the discipline, to be held in Acapulco, Mexico.
Borrero, 30, made the trip with the entire Cuban team but, after arriving in Mexico, he left the concentration and his whereabouts are still unknown.
Ismael Borrero was not only an Olympic champion, but also a two-time world champion. He was crowned in the tournaments of Las Vegas (2015) and, more recently, in Nur-Sultan (2019).
The official sports portal Jit, broke the news this way: “unfortunately, the arrival of the Cuban delegation was marked by the abandonment of the Greco-Roman wrestler from Santiago Ismael Borrero”.
Jit also pointed out that “Borrero’s decision constitutes a serious indiscipline within the Cuban sports system”.
The bouts of the Pan American Wrestling Championship will begin on Thursday, May 5, precisely in the Greco-Roman style.
The escape of Borrero, from the 59 kg division, weakens the Cuban Greco-Roman wrestling team and eliminates from the equation one of the greatest medal hopes for the next Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The Pan American tournament in Mexico awards places for the Belgrade 2022 World Championships, to be held in September. It also awards places for the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile.
Borrero is not the first Olympic champion to leave Cuba in recent times, in a context of deep economic and political crisis. In March 2022, Fernando Dayán Jorge, Olympic canoeing champion in Tokyo 2020, also left a Cuban sports delegation preparing in Mexico.
