Manrique Larduet Bicet

Outstanding Cuban gymnast. Champion and multiple medalist at the XXII Central American and Caribbean Games Veracruz 2014.

In July 2014 he was the top scorer at the Pan American Sports Festival held at the Nissan Complex in the city of Guadalajara. There he won with a total of 89.120 points.

He participated in the XVII Pan American Games Toronto 2015, where he had a very good performance in his first days. On July 13 he won the silver medal in the final of the disputed men's all around competition, finishing just 50 hundredths behind American Samuel Mikulak. On March 25 he finished fourth on rings at the World Cup of Artistic Gymnastics held in Doha, capital of Qatar with a score of 15.600 points, the best score ever achieved on this apparatus.

In his debut at the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016 on August 6 he suffered a fall after slipping on one of his hands on the vault, his best apparatus, but nevertheless managed to recover and achieved 15.766 on the parallel bars competed for 15.766 (4th place), on the high bar 15.116 (8th place) and had no chance on pommel horse (13.866), rings (15.100), floor exercise (15.200) and vault (11.766). During the day the gymnast secured his place in the finals for top all-around scorer, parallel bars and high bar. With 86.814 points he finished in 15th place overall among the 49 who completed all six apparatus.

He started at age five at the Antonio Maceo sports complex, in the Los Pinos neighborhood, in the city of Santiago de Cuba, and according to his father he began the sport because he was mischievous and many people told him he had good potential. A neighbor of his grandmother came to the house and recruited him for gymnastics. That coach was convinced he could succeed, gave him the tests and he did well.

Sports Career
At the 2013 Pan American Apparatus Championship, held at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico, he demonstrated his potential by winning two gold medals - parallel bars (15.725) and vault (15.362) - and a silver in floor exercise with a score of 15.125[1].

2014
In July 2014 he was the top scorer at the Pan American Sports Festival held at the Nissan Complex in the city of Guadalajara. There he won with a total of 89.120 points. In floor exercise he finished second behind Chilean Enrique González, he also won silver on pommel horse, behind Colombia's Jorge Giraldo, and on rings, surpassed by Brazilian Henrique Medina[2]. Two months later, in the continental qualifier for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games in Mississauga, Canada, he confirmed his good athletic moment by winning silver medals on vault and parallel bars.

During the XX Central American and Caribbean Games Veracruz 2014 he won the title on vault with a total of 15.137 ahead of Dominican Audry Nin and Guatemalan Jorge Alfredo Vega and was the top scorer in the gymnastics event. He also won silver medals in floor exercise (15.350), parallel bars (15.550), high bar (14.775), rings (15.325); he was bronze in team and finished eighth on pommel horse (13.850).

2015
He participated in the XVII Pan American Games Toronto 2015, where he had a very good performance in his first days. On July 13 he won the silver medal in the final of the disputed men's all around competition, finishing just 50 hundredths behind American Samuel Mikulak. He made a great impression on the public and experts, obtaining scores of 14.500 on floor exercise, 13.450 on pommel horse, his Achilles heel. Additionally, he finished second on rings (15.400) and high bars (15.150), dominated the vault (15.400) and on parallel bars, the test in which the highest scores were given, finished third (15.750). On July 14 he won bronze medal on rings with 15.450 points, on July 15 silver on parallel bars with a score of 15.650, gold on vault with 15.125 and fourth place on high bar with 15.250.

He participated in the World Artistic Gymnastics Championship that took place in Glasgow, Scotland, in October of that year, where he finished seventh in the all around standings and qualified for three finals, and is now the only Latin American among the top 10 in Competition I with a total of 88.656 points. Manrique achieved scores above 15 units on floor exercise (15.166), parallel bars (15.666) and high bar (15.058), but also had good scores of 14.933 units on rings and 14.000 on pommel horse. On October 30 he wins silver medal as top scorer in an almost perfect day, improving his preliminary scores in five of the six apparatus to finish with 90.698 units only surpassed by the 92.332 of the outstanding Japanese Kohei Uchimura, Olympic champion reaching his sixth crown of this type. He started with 14.300, 13th place among the 24 competitors, on pommel horse, his best score ever on this apparatus, and continued with 15.233, 2nd on rings and 15.433, 2nd on vault, 15.733 on parallel bars, finishing 4th, 15.333 on high bar, achieving 1st, and 14.666 on floor exercise, 13th place.

On October 31 in the first final day he finishes seventh on floor exercise with 14.800 points[11]. On November 1 he wins bronze medal on high bar with a score of 15.600, securing his place at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, as well as finishing fifth on parallel bars with 15.733. This is the first time a Cuban gymnast has won more than one medal at world championships.

2016
On March 25 he finished fourth on rings at the World Cup of Artistic Gymnastics held in Doha, capital of Qatar with a score of 15.600 points, the best score ever achieved on this apparatus. A day later on March 26, he won silver medal on parallel bars with a clean routine that received the highest execution score (9.075) among the eight finalists and was key to his 15.775 final units, only surpassed by 15.825 of Azerbaijani Oleg Tipo.

On June 26 he won bronze medal on parallel bars with a score of 15.600 points, behind Azerbaijani Oleg Stepko (15.800) and Colombian Jossimar Calvo (15.625), at the World Cup of Artistic Gymnastics held in Anadia, Portugal, finishing fourth on high bar with a score of 15.100 ref>Farewell with bronzes. Available at Periódico Jit. Consulted June 27, 2016.

In his debut at the XXXI Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro 2016 on August 6 he suffered a fall after slipping on one of his hands on vault, his best apparatus, but nevertheless managed to recover and achieved 15.766 on parallel bars competed for 15.766 (4th place), on high bar 15.116 (8th place) and had no chance on pommel horse (13.866), rings (15.100), floor exercise (15.200) and vault (11.766). During the day the gymnast secured his place in the finals for top all-around scorer, parallel bars and high bar. With 86.814 points he finished in 15th place overall among the 49 who completed all six apparatus. On August 10 when competing in the individual all around he had to abandon the final after only performing rings (15.133) and vault (14.000), as he suffered a reinjury to his left ankle, so he would compete on Tuesday August 16 in the high bar and parallel bars finals[16]. On August 16 in the final unable to perform in optimal conditions in his fundamental specialty, the individual all around, he gathered strength for parallel bars (15.625) and high bar (15.033), from which he finished in fifth and sixth places respectively. Although he did not bring back the desired medal Manrique Larduet returned happy to his homeland after confirming himself as the best of Cuban gymnastics at the Olympic Games.

Awards
Selected by the survey organized by INDER and the specialized press along with Julio César La Cruz as the best male athlete of Cuba in individual sports in 2015.
Chosen in the traditional annual vote held by INDER and the Sports Writers Circle among the 10 best athletes of 2016 in Cuba.
Selected among the 10 best athletes of 2016 in Santiago de Cuba.
Chosen in the annual vote by INDER and the specialized press among the 10 athletes of 2017 in Cuba.
Selected as the most outstanding male athlete in individual sports in Santiago de Cuba in 2017.