Legna Verdecia Rodríguez

Prominent Cuban judoka who always demonstrated tremendous fighting spirit.

Legna Verdecia Rodríguez signed up to go to the gym at Fleita's academy, on the outskirts of San Andrés, in 1985. Yes, because she was not born in this city as many think, but in Manzanillo, Granma, on October 29, 1975. What happened was that the following year she moved with her parents to this province. "I got excited when I saw coach Alberto Rodríguez looking for girls who wanted to sign up."

"At that moment I didn't know what judo was. I signed up also because I always liked being involved in something, I've always been a very 'hyperactive' person and I really liked participating in physical education and in all the activities that took place in my neighborhood. I was very competitive."

She arrived at the Olympic venue in Sydney with an increasingly firm aspiration: "To conquer the title in the 52-kilogram division." Thus becoming the first gold medal for the Cuban delegation at the event.

She was born in Granma, but when she was one year old she came with her family to live in Aguas Claras (Holguín). Legna was an restless 13-year-old girl when a group of coaches arrived at her school to recruit girls for judo practice. She remembers that because of her dedication to training and her learning, six months later she was recruited for the EIDE Pedro Díaz Coello and shortly afterward won her first gold medal, debuting at the National School Games in Camagüey. She was thirteen years old at that time.

Among Legna's most important achievements are a gold medal and a bronze medal in Olympic Games, a pair of world titles—in the junior category and in the senior category—, as well as a silver medal and three bronze medals at that level.

She also treasures three gold medals in the same number of world cups and a gold, a silver and two bronzes in University World Games. Likewise she went "three-for-three" in Panamerican and Central American-Caribbean Games, and achieved five first places, one second and one third in continental championships.

Record: In five appearances at the renowned Fukuoka Cup she accumulated two top prizes and two runner-up finishes, and in eight participations in the prestigious Villa de París tournament she won the crown four times, with three silvers and one bronze.

And in national championships she debuted with bronze in 1987, but she dominated the title consecutively in the remaining 12 in which she participated until the year 2000.

The following bout was in the women's final of the -52 kilogram division of the Sydney 2000 Olympics, where the Cuban judoka won Olympic gold by defeating Noriko Narazaki of Japan.