Yakelín Estornell was born in Guantánamo, Cuba 38 years ago and is the only female boxer from the nation competing at the final qualifier for the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which takes place in Bangkok, Thailand from 24 May to 2 June.
Even though Cuba competing in a boxing tournament is far from unusual, particularly when you consider that the nation is one of the most successful in Olympic boxing history, in reality, this is a historic moment.
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In December 2022, Estornell was a wrestling trainer in Guantánamo. It was at that time that women were officially given permission to practice boxing in Cuba. The news changed her life or, to put it another way, allowed her to find a new one.
In January 2023, the national school of boxing in Cuba opened its doors to women and, in less than 12 months, three of the dozen boxers who make up the elite team participated in the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games.
This was the first qualifier in history in which Cuba’s female boxers could obtain a quota for the Olympic Games. None of the three achieved their goal in Chile nor at the first World Qualification Tournament in Busto Arsizio, Italy in March.
Now there is just one opportunity left, at the Second World Qualification Tournament in Thailand, and only one boxer from Cuba can take it: Yakelín Estornell.
“To qualify for the Olympics would be a source of pride for the people of Cuba, it would be the first time that a female boxer qualified for the Olympic Games,” Estornell, who fights in the -66kg category, told Olympics.com.
Estornell is the personification of a common dream for Cuba’s women’s boxers: “Las Marianas of Boxing”, as they are known, in honour of Mariana Grajales, who is considered the Mother of the Nation and a symbol of Cuban women after she devoted her life to the fight for Cuban independence in the 19th century.
“The Cuban woman is very strong and knows how to impose herself,” Estornell told us. “I also try to give the best of myself and it is a source of pride for a Cuban woman to compete in every sport, particularly in women’s boxing, which is a new sport. It makes me proud to be a representative of women’s boxing and women in general.”
