At the 2011 Pan American Games, the breakout sensation was Cuban sprinter Hanser Garcia, who has created some buzz around Latin-American swimming, and he will now see himself in a new, foreign training ground for the months of January and February.
He placed behind only the great Cesar Cielo in the 100 freestyle with a 48.34, and behind only Cielo and another Brazilian Bruno Fratus in the 50 free with a 22.15.
That 100 freestyle time ranks him 12th in the world this year, despite having never made nary a ripple in the world of water previously. Furthermore, his technique was pretty bad, with poor starts, turns, and underwaters (owing to his background as a water polo player).
Because of problems with the Cuban training facility (he was training only in an outdoor 25-meter course), he and his coach Lili Mojarrieta are being sent to train in Peru, according to the Cuban news site CubaDebate.
One would presume that he will be training in Lima, probably at the pool that recently hosted the Fina Junior World Championships (Piscina Olímpica Campo De Marte), which is a very nice outdoor 50 meter, but that’s not confirmed.
The swimmers who is known locally as “the Chicken” is now one of the best darkhorse medal candidates from any event at the Olympics. He’s got good height at about 6’4, and fairly obvious areas for improvement. The presumed reason why Peru was chosen was because of cost – it would have likely been much more expensive for him to go and train at one of the elite swimming countries like Brazil (though, wouldn’t the Brazilians have loved to have him to attempt to get him to defect – they’d be medalists with his addition to the 400 free relay).
Yes, Rodolfo Falcon and Niesser Bent I think are the two swimmers you are referring to Braden
PP- from the article, I think his coach is going with him down to Peru, so I’m sure he will be training with him, and not the distance team. As for facilities, I have no clue what Peru has to offer, but if it is similar to what you’re describing, that’s a bummer. Many swimmers have gotten fast at poor pools though!
It’s not ideal…but it’s still a step up from an outdoor 25 with a broken heater in the middle of Winter (even if its a mild winter). If US-Cuba relations were more normalized, I bet he’d have ended up in Puerto Rico. There were some Cubans who went there to train before the ’96 games, I believe, and ended up medaling.
I genuinely cannot understand this. I have done two two-month training stints in Peru with their top team – which is incidentally a distance squad – and I cannot imagine that Garcia would be able to train better than in Cuba. There are not the coaches and there is not the infrastructure for top level sprinting.
I raced at the short-course pool in Campo de Marte a month and a half after the World Junior champs this year and the long course pool had been left unheated an uncleaned since the competition finished. It couldn’t even be used as a swim down pool.
This guy clearly has a phenomenal talent, but I fear he will not make the best of… Read more »
Of course Peru, a very well known world’s swimming excellence centre.
not.
He should go and train with Cielo et al.
But should stay away from any brazilian coffee if offered.
cheap defection gag
I believe he was originally a water polo player, hence the speed and poor turns
You are correct sir, he was originally a water polo player. Excellent point.