Yurisel Laborde

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Yurisel Laborde Duany (born August 18, 1979 in Santiago de Cuba ) is a Cuban judoka and two-time world champion.

At the 2004 Summer Olympics , she and Lucia Morico from Italy won the bronze medal in the judo competitions for women in the light heavyweight division (weight class 78 kg).

At the Judo World Championships in 2001 in Munich and the Judo World Championships in 2003 in Osaka, she won the silver medal in this weight class, the gold medal in Cairo in 2005 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2007 . At the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo in 2003 , she also won a silver medal. In 2007 she was named the best female athlete in her home province of Santiago de Cuba .

In May 2008, she applied for political asylum following her victory at the Pan American Judo Championships in Miami . She justified her decision in media interviews with her dissatisfaction with the Cuban sports system, in which, after twelve years of successful high-performance sports in the national team, she had no more than her medals. Although she is a two-time world champion, she was unable to get a house or a car. Since she could no longer compete for Cuba and was initially automatically banned from international competitions for another country, she gave up her dream of an Olympic victory in Beijing . At the time of her surprising decision not to return to Cuba, she was considered one of the Cuban Olympic team's greatest hopes for a gold medal. Her national coach accused the international press of "treason" because a lot had been invested in her career as a top athlete. In October 2011, it was reported that a sports journalist in Laborde's hometown of Santiago had been fired from his job on the state broadcaster for illegally staying in contact with her.

After initially working as a judo trainer in Florida for a year, she moved to Puerto Rico in 2009 , where she joined the police force. There she belongs to the judo club of the sports school of the city of Carolina .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yurisel Laborde y Geandris Garzón mejores atletas del año 2007 in Santiago de Cuba. In: Infodeportivas of December 21, 2007, accessed on September 13, 2013 (Spanish)
  2. ^ Cuban judoka ready for new life in US . In: Miami Herald of May 25, 2008, accessed via LatinAmericanStudies.org on September 13, 2013 (English)
  3. ↑ Aspira a otra etapa . In: ESPN Deportes of May 19, 2008, accessed on September 13, 2013 (Spanish)
  4. ↑ Judo: Yurisel Laborde se prepara para Beijing. In: CMKC of January 26, 2008, accessed from the Judô e Poesia blog on September 13, 2013 (Spanish)
  5. ↑ Bicampeona deserta en Miami: Golpe al judo cubano . In: El Nuevo Diario of May 12, 2008, accessed on September 13, 2013 (Spanish)
  6. ↑ Expulsan del ICRT al periodista Rolando Ramos ( Memento of 20 April 2012 at the Internet Archive ). In: Diario de Cuba of October 30, 2011, accessed via WayBackMachine on September 13, 2013 (Spanish)
  7. ↑ Interview with Yurisel Laborde ( Memento from April 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on the Ligas de Judo website from July 1, 2012, accessed on September 13, 2013 (Portuguese)
  8. ↑ List of clubs and active members 2013 (PDF; 846 kB) of the Judo Association of Puerto Rico, accessed on September 13, 2013 (Spanish)
personal data
SURNAME Laborde, Yurisel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laborde Duany, Yurisel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cuban judoka
DATE OF BIRTH 18th August 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Santiago de Cuba