Cubans looking for more at Tokyo 2020

The fact that Leila Martinez and Lidiannis ‘Lidy’ Echeverria are currently representing Cuba at the Tokyo Olympics beach volleyball tournament is pretty remarkable.

After all, they’re the first women in their country to compete at the event since the Beijing 2008 Games, when the legendary Dalixia Fernandez and Tamara Larrea represented the Caribbean island at the Olympics for a third and final time.

After 12 years, Cuban beach volleyball is back at the Games and the goal is to make of its return the foundation of a new and more successful era for the country's athletes internationally.

“It’s pretty remarkable for our country that we’re here, we’re the first women to qualify since 2008,” the 25-year-old Lidy said. “We believed this was something that needed to happen for Cuban beach volleyball to start growing again and to hopefully get back to the level it once was. And we’re trying to take advantage of this opportunity.”

The Cubans have played in two good matches in Tokyo, but ended on the wrong side of both, losing to Australia’s Mariafe Artacho Del Solar and Taliqua Clancy and the Russian Olympic Committee’s Nadezda Makroguzova and Svetlana Kholomina on Pool E.

The Caribbeans now need a win against Italians Marta Menegatti and Viktoria Orsi Toth on Friday to move forward in the tournament.

“Our goal here is to enjoy the event but also to work better as a team every match,” the 27-year-old Leila added. “I feel like we’re doing that but also that our level of beach volleyball should be enough to take us further. Hopefully we can keep improving step-by-step, but there’s still one match that could put us through the elimination round and we’ll fight for it with a smile on our faces.”

Team chemistry is certainly something Lidy and Leila will need to take on the best teams in the world. The two were partners in 2017, when they took a ninth at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships in Vienna, but spent the last three years playing with different partners.

During this year’s tournaments prior to the Olympics, including the three FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour events held in Cancun, and even the NORCECA Continental Cup Finals, where they qualified Cuba for the Tokyo Games, Lidy and Leila played with Yanisleidis Sanchez and Mailen Deliz, respectively.

United once again, they want to put their strengths together to push for the growth of Cuban beach volleyball.

“The decision was to send the strongest team possible to Tokyo,” Lidy explained. “Our coach (Alain Hernandez) didn’t have a lot of time to make a decision after we won the Continental Cup and our results were the most relevant among the players in the team. We believe we’re the team with the best chances of getting a good result, which would obviously help the sport’s growth in our country.”

Quick links:
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Schedule and results
Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 - Beach volleyball
FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour
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