Cuba Preparing, IOC Member Says

An influential member of the International Olympic Committee, German Rieckehoff of Puerto Rico, said Friday he is “a little less pessimistic” after a visit in Havana two weeks ago with President Fidel Castro that Cuba will boycott the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea.

“The athletes in Cuba are all ready for participation,” said Rieckehoff, one of seven IOC members here as observers of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s executive board meetings. “They are preparing.”

Rieckehoff said the Cubans are aware that it is too late to enter team sports except for baseball but that he believes they may send individual athletes to Seoul.

He also said that the 1991 Pan American Games will be held in Havana regardless of whether Cuba participates in the Summer Olympics.