Cuba had the first Olympic champion in the javelin player María Caridad Colón Ruenes, in Moscow 1980, and in 1978 the volleyball players enjoyed the first of their three world titles, but we had to wait until 1989 to see a native of our nation individually climb to the top of the awards stage in a universal event, an honor that fell to the late judoka Estela Virgen Rodríguez Villanueva (1967-2022).
The event occurred on October 15, 1989 – 35 years ago – when the native of Palma Soriano defeated the British Sharon Lee in the final of the open category, in 19th place. World Judo Championship, based in Belgrade, in the then Yugoslavia, in a contest in which two other Cubans: Maritza Pérez Cárdenas (52 kilograms) and Odalys Revé Jiménez (66 kg) obtained bronze medals in their respective divisions.
Estela won medals of all colors in competitions in the world of sport created by Jigoro Kano, because after the universal title, she finished as runner-up in Barcelona 1991, succumbing to the Chinese Zhuang Xiaoyan, and in Chiba, Japan, in 1995, she and the South Korean Lee Hyun-Kyung shared the bronze medals in the open category, which was dominated by Monique van der Lee, from the Netherlands.
Died on April 10, 2022 due to conditions associated with the diabetes she suffered from, Estela was one step away from Olympic glory on two occasions, finishing with the silver medal in Barcelona 1992 and Atlanta 1996. In the first of those events she lost again against China’s Zhuang Xiaoyan in the final match of more than 72 kilograms and a four-year period later she was surpassed in the so-called Centennial Games by Sun Fuming, another representative of the Asian giant.
Exalted to the Hall of Fame of the Pan-American Judo Confederation, she occupies a space in the list of the hundred best athletes of the Greater Antilles in the 20th century.
