Cuba would have increased the competitive drive of the games (Photo LSV)

Mayagüez, PR: Cuba is notably absent from these games and that is a shame. As the Greater of the Antilles, Cuba is a major force in Sports and has usually dominated in many of the sports venues. In the 2006 Games held in Cartagena, Columbia Cuba led in total medal count with 285 of which 138 were Gold, 86 Silver and 61 Bronze. Unfortunately, the political status of Puerto Rico was one of the contributing factors in Cuba pulling itself out of these games.

Though Puerto Rico competes in world games as a separate an independent country, the internal politics are those of a U.S. Commonwealth, or as it really is, a U.S. Colony. Thus Cuba, who would not have a problem traveling anywhere else, would have to go through a lengthy bureaucratic process to enter Puerto Rico. Apparently, the Cuban's were not allowed to land their Cubana De Aviación planes directly from Havana to Puerto Rico. The State Department required the Cuban planes to fly to Miami and there board an American air carrier to bring the delegation that would have numbered close to a thousand to Puerto Rico. The Cubans and many other countries found that to be unresonable.

The Cubans were also asking for certain security measures and visa processing that the U.S. State Department was not willing to accept. Finally, the Cubans have been going through a serious economic crisis. So if you put all these issues together, you have the reasons why Cuba, a serious sports competitor did not come to the XXI games.

On the other hand this has given many countries the opportunity to upscale their athletic abilities without Cuba’s presence and that has been a blessing to many athletes giving them more exposure and a drive to excel and capture a medal that perhaps otherwise they would not be able to get.

Total medal count from the 2006 Games held in Cartagena, Columbia:

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Cuba	138	86	61	285
2	Mexico	107	82	86	275
3	Colombia	72	70	77	219
4	Venezuela	49	90	124	263
5	Puerto Rico	24	19	53	96
6	Dominican Republic	22	31	44	97
7	Jamaica	9	6	7	22
8	El Salvador	6	12	30	48
9	Barbados	6	2	11	19
10	Guatemala	5	13	30	48
11	Panama	2	5	7	14
12	Costa Rica	2	1	2	5
13	Netherlands Antilles	2	1	1	4
14	Trinidad and Tobago	1	9	11	21
15	Cayman Islands	1	2	0	3
16	U.S. Virgin Islands	1	2	0	3
17	Guyana	1	1	0	2
18	British Virgin Islands	1	0	0	1
19	Bahamas	0	6	4	10
20	Haiti	0	5	3	8
21	Honduras	0	2	3	5
22	Grenada	0	2	0	2
23	Saint Kitts and Nevis	0	1	2	3
24	Saint Lucia	0	1	1	2
25	Nicaragua	0	0	4	4
26	Antigua and Barbuda	0	0	1	1
27	Bermuda	0	0	1	1
28	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	0	0	1	1
29	Suriname	0	0	1	1
	TOTAL	449	449	564	1,462

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites