Cuban -born triathlete longs to represent U.S.

Don Norcross

Manny Huerta was roughly 2,625 miles away in Costa Rica, talking via cell phone. But the emotion in his voice was so genuine, so sincere, the message came across as if he were staring you in the face.

Born in Cuba, a U.S. citizen now for eight years. Huerta, 28, was asked what it would mean if he represented the United States in triathlon this summer at the London Olympics.

“My family, myself, we’ve made so many sacrifices,” he began. “We came here to a bigger, better country. The U.S., it opened its doors to my entire family. So in a way, I’d be saying thank you. I’d be paying back the United States.”

One hundred and forty of the best Olympic-distance triathletes in the world have touched down in San Diego this week to compete in the International Triathlon Union World Triathlon San Diego. A wieldy title.

But for eight American female and seven U.S. male triathletes, what’s at stake is simple. It’s their last chance to automatically qualify for the London Games.

There’s one spot available for the women, two for the men.

Huerta, as he recalls, was 8 when he began dreaming about the Olympics. The 1992 Games in Barcelona are the first ones he remembers. He can still visualize the Opening Ceremony when an archer ignited the cauldron with a lit arrow.

Cuban hero Javier Sotomayor won the men’s high jump gold medal.

“Every Olympic Games you were glued to the TV,” he said. “Back in Cuba, athletes are big heroes. Even though it’s a very small country, Olympic sports are huge.”

Cuba traditionally excels in boxing and baseball. A swimmer since he was 6, Huerta remembers Cuban men earning silver and bronze medals in the 100-meter backstroke at the 1996 Atlanta Games. He swam at the same Havana pool as the medalists.

“That’s when the Olympic dream formed for me,” he said.

Yet he knew he would never represent Cuba. In 1980, Huerta’s grandmother was part of a mass exodus when an estimated 125,000 Cubans, spurred by an economic downturn, fled the country across six months by boats.

Family members left behind were considered political refugees.

“Even if I were the same caliber athlete as those supported by the Cuban government, I wouldn’t be given permission to compete at international events,” Huerta said. “They would be afraid I’d defect.”

Cubans lived in fear of Fidel Castro’s government.

“People around the neighborhood, they would just disappear,” he said. “I’d ask, ‘Did they leave by boat?’ Someone would say, ‘No, they wrote communists on the wall and the cops took them away.’”

Meanwhile, Huerta’s grandmother, living in Miami. applied for U.S. visas for her daughter, Huerta and his sister. The visas were granted. Huerta, 13, moved to Miami and hasn’t returned to Cuba.

“All I knew about the U.S. was from movies I watched on TV,” he said. “There were happy people, happy kids. On the island, we were so poor, you don’t see that many smiles.” More >>