Ledis Frank Balceiro Pajon (born April 18, 1975 in

Matanzas Matanzas (Cuban ) is the capital of the Cuban province of Matanzas. Known for its poets, culture, and Afro-Cuban folklore, it is located on the northern shore of the island of Cuba, on the Bay of Matanzas (Spanish ''Bahia de Matanzas''), east ...

) is a

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

n sprint canoeist who competed from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. In

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

Balceiro became the first-ever Cuban canoeist to win a major international title, taking the

Pan-American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

C-1 1000 m gold medal in

Mar del Plata Mar del Plata is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the seat of General Pueyrredón district. Mar del Plata is the second largest city in Buenos Aires Province. The name "Mar del Plata" is a s ...

, Argentina. At the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and surrounding towns and ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,6 ...

, Balceiro duelled with Canadian Steve Giles, the reigning

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

C-1 1000 m champion. Giles won the C-1 1000 m final ahead of Balceiro with the positions reversed in the C-1 500 m event. By now the Cubans were challenging the top European canoeists as well and at the

Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug language, Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport ...

, Balceiro achieved another first as he won the country's first-ever canoe/kayak Olympic medal - the C-1 1000 m silver behind Germany's

Andreas Dittmer Andreas Dittmer (born 16 April 1972 in Neustrelitz, Bezirk Neubrandenburg) is a German sprint canoeist. The dominant sprint canoeist of his generation in 1000 m races, he has won three Olympic and eight world championship gold medals. Dittmer ...

. In the C-1 500 m event, he finished sixth. On the retirement of

Leobaldo Pereira Leobaldo Pereira Pulido (born July 31, 1972) is a Cuban sprint canoeist who competed in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. He won the silver medal in the C-2 1000 m event at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Pereira also won four me ...

at the end of the 2001 season, Balceiro was selected as the new partner for

Ibrahim Rojas Ibrahim Rojas Blanco (born October 10, 1975 in Santa Cruz del Sur, Camagüey) is a Cuban sprint canoeist who competed from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s. In 2001 he and partner Leobaldo Pereira won Cuba's first-ever world c ...

in Cuba's two-man (C-2) canoe. The two men had occasionally raced together as teenagers and struck up an immediate understanding on and off the water. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

they became double world champions (C-2 200 m and C-2 500 m) in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

, Spain. They also took the silver medal in the C-2 1000 m final. The pair were voted Cuban Athletes of the Year in recognition of their achievement. In 2003 they won both C-2 finals at the

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is held ...

(500 m and 1000 m) and went to the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

at Gainesville, USA, as favourites. Unlike their main European rivals they again entered all three C-2 events. They finished fourth in the C-2 500 m, but were awarded bronze after the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n team was stripped of their silver medals following

Sergey Ulegin Sergey Ulegin (born October 8, 1977 in Engels) is a Russian canoeist who has been competing since 2001 He won a silver in the men's C-2 500 m event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. At the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships, Ulegin has w ...

's doping disqualification. The Cuban pair had had very little recovery time since the Pan-American Games however and, this time, their grueling race schedule took its toll on Rojas and they finished outside the medals. Both men were due to retire after the Athens Olympics and were hopeful of bowing out with a medal. Eighth place in the C-2 1000 m final was a disappointment, but the next day they won the C-2 500m silver medal. Balceiro later decided to continue and switched back to the C-1 event for the 2005 season. He holds the C-1 200 m world record of 38.383 seconds (

2002)

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Balceiro, Ledis 1975 births Canoeists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Canoeists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Cuban male canoeists Living people Olympic canoeists for Cuba Olympic silver medalists for Cuba Olympic medalists in canoeing ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships medalists in Canadian Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games gold medalists for Cuba Pan American Games medalists in canoeing Canoeists at the 2003 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2003 Pan American Games