Cumbá aims for 20m after fulfilling Olympic dream

All the hard work has finally paid off for Cuban shot putter Yumileidi Cumbá, who has coped with two knee injuries to produce her best season ever, capped by the Olympic gold Athens.

”We trained very well this year. After the World Indoors (where Cumba was second), my coach and I confirmed that there were no barriers and that I could do well in Athens. We fulfilled our goal with an Olympic medal and the gold is even better,” confirmed the Olympic champion.

Cumbá released a put of 19.59m in her final attempt to move from sixth to second place in the women's Olympic Shot Put final, held at the Ancient Olympia stadium. Five days later, she was upgraded to the gold following the doping disqualification of Russia's Irina Korzhanenko.

“I don't know when I will wake up from this dream”

”I easily qualified for the final with my first put (19.10m) and I saw that I had medal chances. In the afternoon, I was a bit nervous because the competition was not producing great results,” recounted the 29-year old.

Cumbá opened her series with 18.39 and after a foul, she released her implement to 18.74 and made the top 8 cut-off for the final three rounds. Two more fouls preceded her decisive 19.59, her second best effort ever which moved her into a podium position.

"I could not accept being off the podium as I had thrown 19.97 a few weeks before in Spain. I gave it all and the rest is history. That was impressive, the greatest thing that could ever happen to me. It is undoubtedly the best result in my career", she stated.

"Of course I am extremely happy and I don't know when I will wake up from this dream. I want to stay in good form next year and be consistent to obtain more good results", she continued.

The joy was doubled for Cuba as Cumbá’s training partner Misleydis González was seventh in the Olympia final, as well as at the earlier World Indoors Championships. That meant two Cuban female shot putters in global championship finals for the first time.

Strong punishments

And about gaining the gold upon the doping disqualification of another athlete, Cumbá has strong views. "I can't stand this (cheating). After years of hard work and dealing with injuries, you don't want to lose to doped athletes. It is demoralising and they should be strongly punished.’

Cumbá became the first non-European to win the Olympic gold in women's Shot Put history, and she also joined the exclusive list of Cuban woman who have claimed an Olympic title in Athletics, following Maria Caridad Colón (Javelin in Moscow'80), Maritza Martén (Discus in Barcelona'92). Javelin thrower Osleidys Menéndez joined the roll call a few days later in Athens.
 
No family sports background
  
Yumileidi Cumbá was born on February 22, 1975 in Guantánamo, which is the eastern most province of Cuba. With no sports background in her family, Cumbá took Physical Education classes every week, like all kids in Cuba. There, she played volleyball, basketball and other team sports, as well as athletics.

"I chose athletics because I liked to run, jump and throw. I remember watching (1980 Discus Olympic medallist) Luis Mariano Delis on TV".

She was always tall and well-built since her teen ages and started to train at the age of 10 under the guidance of Eduardo Douglas Bronx at the Sports School in Guantánamo. She was then upgraded to the national Junior Sports School in Havana in 1989, when she was trained by her current coach Justo Navarro.

“I liked the Shot and the Discus and practised both as a junior, but then I had to choose and picked the Shot. I have been training with Justo since I arrived in Havana. He is like a father to me," she explained.

She ended the 1990 season with 14.53 and improved to 15.84 the following year. With a 17.44 toss in 1992, she became the top junior shot putter on the Island and was included in the Cuban team for her first international competition, the World Junior Championships in Seoul, where she finished fourth.

A year later, she joined the national senior team and claimed her first international win at the Pan American Junior Championships in Winnipeg. She added a silver at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Ponce.

In 1994, she ended her last season as a junior with the first of her eight senior national titles and the silver medal at the World Junior Championships in Lisbon. She improved her personal best by over a metre, from 17.70 to 18.78, a national junior record still in effect.
 
19 metres and then serious injury

Cumbá confirmed her progress early in 1995 when she broke the 19m barrier (19.11) in Havana, but could not repeat that form during the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata, Argentina, where she was only third.

Bad luck continued later that year. At the World Championships in Gothenburg, she tore her ligaments, her joints and also the internal meniscus in her right knee. She could only manage a poor 15.80 and could not advance to the final. That was of course the end of the season and she underwent surgery back in Havana.

After the surgery, her right knee was no longer the same. In 1996, she could only produce 18.57 and just missed the Olympic final with 18.55 in 13th position.

The pain got severe again during a weight training session early in 1997 and she had to undergo a second surgery. She could no compete at all.

Back to the circle in 1998, the 1.83m tall athlete improved from her second place in Ponce'93 to the gold medal at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Macaraibo, Venezuela. She ended the season with a 19.20 best and a fourth place at the IAAF World Cup in Johannesburg.

The following year marked her return to World Championships with two sixth places, indoors in Maebashi and out in Seville. She improved her personal best to 19.29 and won gold at the World University Games in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. She was also second at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg.

Sixth in Sydney

In her second Olympic participation, she made it to the final and finished sixth. She continued her progress with 19.48 two months before Sydney.

The post-Olympic year saw her finish fifth at the World Indoor Champs in Lisbon and eighth outdoors in Edmonton. She also successfully defended her crown at the World University Games in Beijing and was second at the Goodwill Games in Brisbane. Her bests then were 19.10 indoors and 19.00 out.

In 2002, she produced her most notable result in the last event of the season: second at the World Cup in Madrid. She had one of her busiest years with 14 outings, of which she won 11, including her first Iberoamerican title in Guatemala City. Her best was 19.39.

Paris disappointment

Last year, she finally made it to the top of the podium at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo with her season's best of 19.31. She was also sixth at the World Indoor Champs in Birmingham, but failed to qualify for the final at the World Championships in Paris.
 
2004: a breakthrough year

Cumbá was determined to have a better 2004 and started well with her first medal at a global senior championships, a bronze at the World Indoor Champs in Budapest. That medal was updated to silver following the doping disqualification of Ukraine's Vita Pavlysh.

Apart from her surprising Athens gold, she has won eight of her 11 finals this year, and improved her personal best by almost half a metre, to 19.97, at the Iberoamerican Champs in Huelva, Spain, and was over 19 metres in nine of her 13 outings.

Why the improvement?

"In reality, the training was pretty much similar. But we were more prepared psychologically and my coach contributed a lot to it. He made me realise I had the capacity and the strength to obtain better results".

"The pain in my knee is always present. Sometimes, it hurts more, especially when it gets cooler and the weather changes. Some other days, it hurts less. I always feel it. It is just a matter of coping with it. Due to this, I have had to change my training and there are certain things I cannot do as much as I used to, like jumps, running and squatting", she described.

"Nobody knows how much pain I suffer in that knee. I train under pain and it is sometimes stronger than you. Now I have to lose weight because I returned from holidays weighing 114kg".

"These operations have limited me a lot because I was expected to reach 20 meters long ago, based on my results as a junior. I had to change my training and the way of throwing. If my two knees were Ok, I know I could go farther".
   
Family & leisure time

Cumbá lives with her mother Nelia Jay, who is a cook, and her one-year old younger Yaleidi Cumbá in the Caribe neighborhood in the city of Guantánamo. She was given a massive welcome in her hometown and "I was very happy to be with my family and see how many people had followed my career since I was a teenager.”

"I like to spend time with my mom and sister after being away for such a long time away. I love to listen to music, very loud, to dance, watch movies and soap-operas", she stated.

Cumbá is one of the most charismatic athletes in the Cuban team and you can see it in every party after the Cuban team ends long competitive seasons. "You spend months, years of hard work to achieve a result on one day, in one hour. What's left after that? You have to relax and have fun", she smiled.

Helsinki 2005
 
In Helsinki, "I want to erase the memory of my poor performance in Paris and prove that Athens was not a fluke. I feel very well physically and very motivated for 2005.”

"I want to reach 20 metres. I trained to reach that mark but I missed it by just three centimetres. I am sure I'll break that barrier next year. I have been thinking of it for a long time. It is in my arms, my body. I am focused on it and if I can repeat the work I did this year, I know I can achieve it.”

"The national record (20.96) is still far, but I know I can throw over 20 metres. I would have been very happy to throw 20m in Athens. But the medal is what matters in the Olympics. 19.97 and 20.00 are not the same thing. They sound different. I have to keep working and when I get it, I will be very happy.”

Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF