Sports in Cuba after 1959 (II)
An entire infrastructure began to be formed to carry forward the Cuban sports movement, to achieve, first of all, the massive practice throughout the country, to later obtain satisfactory results at international level.
Sports became a massive practice just after the Cuban Revolution program gave the right to every citizen to practice sports regardless their origin, or economic resources. In modern Cuban society, sport and physical education begin when a child is only 45 days old. Children are taught at a later age to play games that resemble physical exercise
In 1961, two years after the triumph of the Revolution, The National Institute of Sport, Physical Education, and Recreation (INDER) was created to develop sports and education programs in place today, including the School Sports Initiation Centre (EIDE by its Spanish name), which is the program that finds the naturally talented young adults and gets them into sports oriented secondary schools.
Every school in Cuba participates in the Junior Olympic Program established in 1963. As of 1978 the Cuban Junior Olympics involved 20 sports: Chess, Weightlifting, Athletics, Tennis, Football, Table Tennis, Basketball, Modern Gymnastics, Gymnastics, Synchronized Swimming, Swimming, Diving, Volleyball, Water Polo, Cycling, Fencing, Judo, Roller derby, Roller hockey, Pistol Shooting, Baseball and Wrestling.
INDER has many programs, including the National Institute for Sports Medicine, the National Coaches program, and the National Physical Education Institute. All of these were developed during the relatively strong economic period of 1960–1990.
Written by Jorge Lora
