Athletic Success, Changing Waters : Cuba: Eyes have been opened to the sports miracle occurring in this poor island nation of 10 million.

Ana Quirot is one of the world’s great runners, and she knows it. A prospective world and Olympic champion, the 400- and 800-meter runner epitomizes the Cuban sports system, which has become the East Germany of the Caribbean.

Plucked from her home in Santiago at age 12, she sped from sports school to sports school, finally landing on the Cuban national team.

Were she from another country, she would be famous. But because Cuba has boycotted two consecutive Olympics, few in the outside world know her.

Not that it matters to her.

“I have been to many capitalist countries, and I know of athletes who were very famous and had much money,” she said. “When they are finished, they have to turn to begging in some cases.”

The lure of the Cuban system, she said, is to run for the glory and honor of the revolution.

“We are one of the few countries where a sports person has a fully guaranteed life,” she said.

The mystery of the Cuban sports system has begun to unravel at the Pan American Games. Powered by a confidence that defies explanation and an apparently deep and committed belief in the charismatic leadership of President Fidel Castro, Cuban athletes have stunned their larger, richer neighbors at the Games, which ended Sunday.

It has been known for years that the Cubans have industrial-strength boxing and baseball teams, the best in the world. Their volleyball teams are very strong, and so are some of their track and field athletes, from Alberto Juantorena, a star of the 1976 Olympics, to present-day high jumper Javier Sotomayor and, of course, Quirot.

But at the Pan Am Games, Cuban weightlifters won 29 of 30 gold medals. A 16-year-old diver upset the Americans to win the men’s 10-meter platform. Another 16-year-old upset two Americans to win Cuba’s first-ever Pan Am gold medal in swimming.

The Cuban women’s basketball team upset the world champion United States. The Cuban men’s basketball team, which didn’t even enter the 1987 Pan Am Games in Indianapolis, almost beat the United States in the first game of the tournament, losing by four points.

All of a sudden, the eyes of a hemisphere have been opened to the sports miracle occurring in this poor island nation of 10 million. In many ways, it is more remarkable than what happened in East Germany, a nation of 16.5 million that won more medals than the United States at the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Cuba is isolated by the trade embargo of its closest and most prosperous neighbor, the United States. Since the fall of the Eastern Bloc, it has gone without many of the items -- and the coaching assistance and advice -- the Soviets and East Germans once supplied.

While the nation suffers enormous economic hardships, its sports teams have never been better.

“The Cuban sports industry meets most of our needs,” said Juantorena, now vice president of the National Institute of Sports. “We can cover with our national production most of the needs of our athletes. Some participation by Cuban athletes in international events has been canceled, but we are handling it.”

Despite enormous obstacles, Cuba built the necessary facilities to put on the Games, even enlisting the help of Quirot and Sotomayor, who put in a few shifts moving bricks, rocks and cement in Estadio Pan Americano.

Some nations might have reneged on the commitment to host 39 nations in a multi-sport event in these economic times. Cuba trudged forward.

“This is a gift to the people,” Juantorena said, “the gift of having so many valuable athletes here from the American continent. We appreciate them coming and we welcome them with open arms. You cannot see everything in terms of cost. Look at it in terms of how much benefit, how much joy, it brings to the Cuban people.”

The U.S. Olympic Committee, a bit surprised by Cuba’s performance here, is not convinced the Cuban sports system is worth the sacrifice.

“The Cubans are very good in a number of sports and we applaud the sacrifices they’ve made so that a few athletes can do very well,” USOC President Robert Helmick said. “It reminds me of things we heard about the East Germans during the ‘80s. Some people in the United States wanted us to abandon our system and go to a system like theirs, where our resources and technology are applied to a few select athletes.

“The American system is the proper system for the United States. What happened in East Germany proves that.”

Quirot, Juantorena and triple Olympic gold medalist Teofilo Stevenson say otherwise.

“Lots of people are shocked at Cuba being such a small country that has such good international results,” Juantorena said. “But we don’t want to be like East Germany was. That is not the goal. The goal is to develop a sports system that helps improve the health of our citizens.”

“I enjoy what we all enjoy,” said Stevenson, the world-renowned former heavyweight boxer who turned down million-dollar offers to fight in the United States. “We are all equals here. We receive as much as we deserve. Our life is guaranteed. I don’t think in terms of millions. I have what I need. I wouldn’t change health for all the gold in the world. I love walking quietly in the streets of Havana. That’s what I have.”