Cuban Olympic Committee demands the immediate exclusion of an athlete from refugee team

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HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban Olympic Committee demanded on Tuesday the “immediate exclusion” of an island athlete who was included by the organizers as part of a refugee team that will participate in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Last May, the International Olympic Committee announced that 37 athletes from 11 countries will compete in the Paris Games as part of the Refugee Olympic Team.

The team was created for the Rio Olympics in 2016 as a symbol of hope and to call attention to the plight of refugees worldwide.

This will be the first time with Cubans on it: Fernando Dayán Jorge, a canoeist who won the gold medal in the 1,000-meter canoe sprint in Tokyo 2020 and weightlifter Ramiro Mora, who currently live in the United States and Great Britain, respectively.

Since May, Cuba opposed both of them being included on the team and said the IOC made a mistake “mixing oil with vinegar” because those athletes were not persecuted or uprooted and they made the decision to emigrate.

“Unfortunately, one of the two athletes included has made disrespectful and fallacious political statements against his country, his people and the sports movement that allowed him to be Olympic champion in Tokyo 2020,” said the official statement from the Cuban Olympic Committee on Tuesday.

The statement did not mention the name of the athlete, but the canoeist has been very vocal against the Cuban government ever since he abandoned his delegation while competing in Mexico to cross the border and settle in the United States.

“The COC is obliged to publicly report this situation and demand the immediate expulsion of the aforementioned athlete from the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, according to the rules that govern the International Olympic Movement,” the statement said. "None of these Cuban athletes are uprooted by war or persecuted.”

Dayán declined to comment on the COC petition.

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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games