Eloína Echeverría Torriente

Athletics champion with great achievements and recognition gained through her career as a Cuban athlete.

She was born in the town of Pedro Betancourt. Daughter of Lázara Torriente Zamora and Víctor Echeverría Torriente, both natives of the locality of working-class social background. Four children were born from this marriage.

She completed her primary education at the Jesús Menéndez school in her hometown. Due to her great athletic qualities, she was recruited by Alfredo Bravo, then provincial commissioner of athletics, to practice the multifaceted sports of racing, jumping, and throwing. She joined in 1973 the School of Sports Initiation (EIDE) Turcios Limas, where she remained at this educational center for three years, developing in the long jump, becoming school champion and record holder.

Her athletic progress led her in 1976-1977 to join the ranks of the National Athletics Pre-Selection, and she began as a student at the School of Athletic Excellence (ESPA) in the capital of the country. There she had as her first coach the long jump specialist Mariana Samuel, later Mario Rodríguez, and in the final years of her athletic career Milán Matos, who has been a coach of great Cuban Olympic figures.

During her time at (ESPA), she was the youth record holder in her specialty by establishing in 1979 the mark of 6.59 meters, which she maintained until 2002. For fifteen consecutive years she was the national champion and for seven a national record holder in long jump. Also a specialist in triple jump, she was the first Cuban woman to surpass 14 meters by achieving a mark of 14.34 that constituted a national record.

Her athletic curriculum is extensive and brilliant. She participated in five Central American and Caribbean Games and 4 Pan American Games.

Central American Games
1978– Medellín, Colombia. Bronze medal.
1982– Havana, Cuba. Gold medal. Record with 6.58 meters.
1986– Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Gold medal and record with 6.61.
1990– Mexico. Silver medal.
1994– Ponce, Puerto Rico. Two silver medals (in long jump and 4x100 meter relay)

Pan American Games
1979– San Juan, Puerto Rico. Two bronze medals (in long jump and in the 4x100 meter relay, alongside stars such as Silvia Chiva, Grisell Machado)
1983– Caracas, Venezuela. Silver medal.
1987– Indianapolis, USA. Bronze medal.
1991– Havana, Cuba. Silver medal.

Other major achievements

She competed in five Americas Cups, qualifying events for the World Cups, a requirement to participate as a member of the Americas II team. On four occasions she qualified as a winner, including in Puerto Rico, in 1989. At the 1992 World Cup in Havana, she was a bronze medalist in triple jump. At the World Championships in Toronto, Canada (indoors), she was a finalist in triple jump.

For twenty years she remained on the roster of the National Athletics Team in the long jump and triple jump specialties.

In 1987 she graduated with a degree in Physical Education from Comandante "Piti Fajardo" University in Havana. Her official retirement as an active athlete occurred in 1997, at which time the highest leadership of Cuban sports awarded her the Order of Martyrs of Barbados, for her consistent trajectory as an athlete and revolutionary. This award was presented to her at the Matanzas sports center "Aurelio Janet".

Her work life began in 1998 as a Physical Education teacher, in 2000 she began working at the Provincial High Performance Center "Aurelio Janet" as a coach in the jumping area.

Married to Ángel Marcelo Suárez, athletics coach, she has two children, Yenis Gladis Suárez Echeverría and Ángel Marcelo.

She was nominated to be part of the list of the one hundred most outstanding Cuban athletes of the 20th century, a demonstration of the recognition and affection she earned with her brilliant and clean trajectory, which makes her a star of world athletics.