“For being a multi-champion and record holder, for your simplicity and Cubanness, for the values you defend on the track and in our society, for the pending dreams that speak of your nobility and loyalty, for that and more Cuba embraces you with pride on your birthday, Omara,” the president wrote on his X account.

Omara was born on November 26, 1991 in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, the birthplace of another athletics star, Alberto Juantorena, two-time Olympic champion in Montreal 1976. jg/ro/mks