Juan Miguel Echevarría, athletics star, requests release from Cuba team

June 19, 2022

The National Athletics Commissioner Yipsi Moreno recently announced that long jumper Juan Miguel Echevarría requested his release from the national team.

The directive acknowledged the reasons given by the athlete, who said this decision is due to personal reasons. Moreno and her technical team stated that they respect his decision because behind every athlete there is a human being. She also left the door open for the exceptional jumper, whom they greatly respect and admire.

Several days ago, word had circulated that Juan Miguel would not participate in the upcoming World Championship in Oregon, United States. Athletics fans were already lamenting this bad news.

This news had already been confirmed for several weeks and the athlete's decision was made. However, they waited until the time of reporting on the Barrientos Memorial to bring this open secret to light.

Let us recall that Juan Miguel was a silver medalist at Tokyo 2020 in the long jump with a mark of 8.41 meters. He has at least 12 podium finishes and gold medals in Diamond Leagues, Indoor Championships, Pan American Games, etc. Notable achievements include the indoor title in 2018 with a leap of 8.46 meters and Pan American gold in Lima 2019 with a mark of 8.27 meters.

Cuban sports suffers another significant loss. We must keep in mind that Juan Miguel represented a potential medal in the various competitions to come during the present year.