Havana, Cuba. – We are only 21 days away from the opening ceremony of the XX Olympic Games, scheduled for next July 27 in London. Winning any medal in any sport will be no mean feat indeed.

We estimate that Cuban delegation, made up by around 100 athletes and women, could rank somewhere between 11th and 20th. To do that, they will have to win more than three or four gold medals and a significant number of silver and bronze medals.

For instance, four years ago, in Beijing, China, Ethiopia ranked 18th, according, first, to the number of gold medals, then silver and bronze. The Ethiopians won four gold, one silver and two bronze medals.

Therefore, three gold medals would leave us close to the 20th place. Even if we got four first places, we would still rank from 16th to 20th.

In 2008, Spain and Kenya won five gold medals and ended 14th and 15th respectively.

Ranking among the first 20 countries in London would take us two or more gold medals in boxing and at least one in wrestling and another in athletics. Such feat will be understandingly tough to achieve.

That would be an outstanding result. However, we could even do better, because we have great chances in judo, taekwondo and rowing. Besides, we should not underestimate the rest of our athletes.

This time, none of our team sports qualified for the Olympics and our delegation will not be large, but it will be a very good one. By: Diego Mendez