Following a dream… on roller skates

by Charly Morales Valido

Photo: Wildy

Guillermo and Alexander have big dreams.

Although at first glance it may seem otherwise, Guille and Alexander have a lot in common: they are both 18, they are members of the Cuban racing skating team and they dream to win a world medal.

If slim Alexander came to skating from soccer, short Guille found in this underrated sport a way of channelling the skills he learned around Havana Capitol.

Alexander recently came to the national team, but Guille, or rather, Guillermo Muñoz, is considered the present and the future of Cuba in a little-known sport, sometimes undervalued and that combines the speed of cycling with the spectacular nature of athletics.

A few months ago, Guille attained the best result in Cuba in the World Championship in San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy. Although he is still young, he ended in the 16^th place in the 300 meters timed race, in which he finished fourth in the Pan American Games of Guadalajara.

"That was my best result. I wasn't happy, because I wanted to be on the podium, but it doesn't matter, I know I can make it, I should only train harder", Guille said, an aggressive young man on the track, but a laconic person when someone interviews him.

Admirer of Colombian skaters, heis always trying to beat them, because together with the Venezuelan ones they are the best in the area. According to his coaches Yuri Rodríguez and Abel Ortiz, the young athlete has a lot to show.

"Guille is exceptional. He does squats with weights of 175 pounds, he is able to run with a bicycle in a sprint. He has the makings of a medalist, provided he is focused”',  Ortiz says, who brought from Venezuela not only skates, but more rigorous training methods.

After several years as coach of the Venezuelan team, Ortiz is ambitious and hopes Guille gets a bronze medal in speed in the ALBA Games. For this he has the support of veteran Tony García, captain of the team and the only Cuban medalist in international tournaments.

"Without a doubt, Guille represents the greatest possibilities, not only because of his youth, but  how he looks on the track. His innate characteristics make him the greatest promise of Cuba internationally – Tony says, who is quite well clear-. Perhaps for other sports the ALBA Games are practice games, but the Cuban skaters will be facing there the cream of the continent."

"To impose myself I have my heart, because I’m short", Guille jokes (he is just 1.63 m in a mode in which the average is around 1.75). In addition, he trusts the experience acquired in his years of extreme skater, jumping over handrails and banisters. And he also says: "I like the extreme,  that polished my skills and helped me to handle better the skate, to respond the best on the track".

 

Guille is extremely competitive, and although the national team is a family, he warns on the tracks he has no friends: "I always go to win," he declaress. But neither he is an automaton to cares only compete and win. Along with his companions, heis part of the Sskaters for Promotion Group, which helps to create awareness on STDs, especially HIV-AIDS infections.

"We must protect ourselves, because there is no back-up. Our work helps many and that encourages us",  he points out. As a young man he also likes to have fun and to make jokes, except when he puts on his old skates shoes to wear out their wheels in sessions of training in the modest skating rink of Havana.

Anyone who arrives and sees him circling in the asphalt, under the sun, and wonders if he will not have anything better to do on the verge of noon. Perhaps hewill never be as famous as a baseball player or a musician; but, even if anonymity hurts him, Guille does not stop: He and his companions have a dream to pursue.