Cuba’s women boxers fighting for history and a debut for their nation at the Olympics

Cuba is a longtime powerhouse in boxing. With 41 Olympic gold medals and 78 medals overall, the nation ranks only behind the United States in medals for boxing. No other Olympic sport comes close to boxing in the country’s medal total. Athletics is a distant second, with 11 gold medals and 35 overall.

All of those medals were won by men. When women’s boxing was added to the Olympic program in 2012, Cuba declined to bring a women’s team to the Olympics. That could change in Paris, as Cuba lifted restrictions around women’s boxing in late 2022. Two Cuban women will compete for quotas at the boxing Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy, starting 3 March.

• As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
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Up until 2022, Cuba allowed women to train in boxing, but not to compete. Cuban officials were concerned with how the sport could affect women’s health. In December 2022, Cuba announced it would change their rules around women boxing and teams sent to international competitions. The change in rules allowed Cuba’s female boxers to finally have Olympic dreams, like their male counterparts.

Two of those women will box in Italy: Legnis Calá in the 56 kg event, and Yakelín Estornell in the 75 kg.

Legnis Calá jumps to boxing

Calá started her sporting life in athletics where she competed in the long jump and triple jump. After giving birth to her daughter, she tried boxing to stay in shape, until the COVID-19 pandemic affected her ability to stay consistent with her training.

“When I started training I did it for about three months straight, but then I would go once in a while, disappear, come back, and so on. And then the pandemic came and I didn’t return until now, and that’s because I let myself get excited about returning. But I don’t regret it, because, although it has been very hard, it has been worth it,” she said in an interview with On Cuba News in October.

Calá went 1-1 in her two matches at the Pan American Games last year, winning a majority decision over Mexico’s Jennifer Yazmin Carrillo before dropping a unanimous decision to Venezuela’s Omailyn Carolina Alcala Segovia.

Yakelín Estornell finds boxing after wrestling career

Like Calá, Estornell came to boxing after she competed in another sport. Estornell was a wrestler – another sport Cuba is known for – and competed for her country several times between 2014 to 2019, winning the Pan American Championships in 2018.

She had retired from wrestling, and had never even tried boxing when Cuba announced it would field a women’s boxing team. Still, she wanted to give it a try.

“Although both are combat sports, boxing has nothing to do with wrestling, neither in the techniques nor in the training. They are only alike in that you have to defeat your opponent. For me it has been almost like starting from scratch,” she said in an interview in October.

At the Pan American Games, she lost her one match, a unanimous decision to Mexico’s Citlalli Ortiz. Estornell wants to win in Italy to set her on a path to achieving her Olympic dream.

“Since I was little, I liked combat sports, and I was always motivated to be able to achieve success in sports, to win medals for Cuba, to be a world or Olympic champion if I had the opportunity, like so many great Cuban athletes.”

You can follow Legnis Calá and Yakelín Estornell at the World Qualifying Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy, from 3-11 March.