14ymedio, Havana, 28 December 2023 — Double Olympic boxing champion Mario Kindelán sold the gold medal he won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics because he “had practically nothing to eat” and to “support” his daughters. The confession of the legendary athlete, during an interview given to Play-Off Magazine at the beginning of December, is not the only testimony of athletes who had to give up their prizes for the sake of survival. Like others, the boxer – who also sold the gold medal he obtained in Athens 2004 – insists that he doesn’t regret it.
According to Kindelán, who also spoke in the documentary Lucha,* produced by the American production company Society, it was preferable to exchange his medals for “a television or a refrigerator.” The media reports that he sold his Sydney medal for $400 and used the money to support his family “for a while.”
The boxer described the precarious state in which he was living as “critical,” so much so that he and his wife divorced. Through Facebook and to help him, Kindelán was contacted to train young people at the Grappling Club of Bahrain, a country in the Persian Gulf, where he is currently located. Now Kindelán provides a fact that gives the measure of his poverty: on the Island he received 7,400 pesos for his status as Olympic champion, which “was not enough to buy candy for his children or have the security of eating.”
Yarelys Barrios sold the silver medal he won in Beijing 2008 for $11,
