The IAAF Does Not Forget the Great Ones

The IAAF presents an exhibition with personal belongings of great athletes, among them Cubans Alberto Juantorena, Ana Fidelia Quirot and Javier Sotomayor.

There are moments when we think that time erases the trace; however, it is not always so. We imagine the glory given to our country by track and field stars like Alberto Juantorena, Ana Fidelia Quirot and Javier Sotomayor. We really never forget.

But we, their fellow countrymen, are not the only ones who remember these great ones. The International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) recalls them and so much so that last Saturday, October 14, an exhibition was inaugurated in Barcelona presenting the one-hundred year old history of this organization and including some objects and materials used by these Cubans to attain sportive glory. At the exhibition, which will be open until November 24, we may find, among other objects, the tennis shoes worn by Juantorena when he achieved his two Olympic titles in Montreal ’76; the shirt worn by Sotomayor on July 27, 1993 when he jumped 2.45 m in Salamanca, Spain, and Ana Fidelia Quirot’s bodies when she became world champion in 800 m flat in Gothenburg ’95.

"World Records and Great Rivalries” is the title of the exhibition presented at the Juan Antonio Samaranch museum of the Spanish city, where the gala event in celebration of the centennial of the King of Sports will be celebrated next November 24.

Of course, this exhibition includes not only Cubans, and track and field lovers may recall in it other great world figures. U.S. athlete Michael Johnson is among the honored ones with the number he was wearing when he won the 200 m during the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games.

Jonathan Edwards, the British triple jumper, contributed his registration badge at Gothenburg ’95, where he established the mark of 18.29. Objects belonging to Russian pole vault athlete Elena Isinbaeva also exhibited: the shoes she was wearing at the indoor world championship in Istanbul in 2012 and a life-size photo.