Olympic wrestler Yusneylis Guzmán leaves Cuban team during Mexico stopover

November 6, 2026

Cuban freestyle wrestler Yusneylis Guzmán López, the Paris 2024 silver medalist at 50 kg, left the national team during a stopover in Mexico while the squad was traveling to a training camp in Brazil, a source close to the local federation told AFP, as reported by Infobae, La Jornada and El Universal. The 30-year-old was the first Cuban woman to win an Olympic medal in freestyle wrestling.

As of Tuesday, November 4, neither Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER) nor the Cuban Wrestling Federation had issued a public statement on her departure or whereabouts. The exact stopover location and date of her exit were not disclosed.

After Paris 2024, Guzmán was named Cuba’s top female athlete of that year. Her record also includes gold at the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, silver at Lima 2019, and Central American and Caribbean Games medals (gold in San Salvador 2023, silver in Veracruz 2014 and bronze in Barranquilla 2018).

Her exit comes amid a wave of Cuban athletes leaving teams on foreign trips. Days later, three judokas who medaled at the Pan American Open in Florida — Jonathan Charón, Lianet Cardona and Dayanara Curbelo — also left the squad, Infobae and 14ymedio reported.