Cuban Gymnast Says He Will Stay in U.S.

By Helene Elliott

Aug. 18, 2003 12 AM PT

Cuban gymnast Michel Brito Ferrer told the Spanish-language Telemundo TV network Sunday he will not return to his homeland with his team and will instead stay in the U.S.

Cuba’s team finished 15th and did not qualify for the team finals. Brito Ferrer, 24, ranked 112th overall and did not qualify for the all-around or individual event finals.

After his team had finished competing Sunday, Brito Ferrer told the TV interviewer he planned to remain in the U.S. and hoped to someday compete for this country. He was said to be staying with a family in Los Angeles. He finished 10th in the all-around at the Pan American Games, which ended Sunday.

Cuban team officials, who were said to have been caught off guard by the athlete’s declaration, could not be reached for comment.

Olympics

Helene Elliott

Helene Elliott was with the Los Angeles Times’ Sports department from 1989 to 2024, first as a staff writer and then, starting in 2006, as a columnist. She became the first female journalist to be honored with a plaque in the Hall of Fame of a major professional sport as the 2005 winner of the Hockey Hall of Fame’s Elmer Ferguson Award, awarded to writers “who have brought honor to journalism and to hockey.” A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., and graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, she has covered 18 Olympics.

Cuban Gymnast Says He Will Stay in U.S.

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