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AFP, HAVANA
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Juan Jose Guilarte is like any other 10-year-old as he raced around a park in Cuba’s capital, Havana, but one detail distinguishes the sports-mad kid who dreams of Olympic glory: his prosthetic leg.
Guilarte was born with a congenital malformation that resulted in his left leg developing only as far as the femur and the kneecap. His condition has never held back the effervescent child, who lists off a plethora of career ambitions, from “YouTuber, scientist and teacher,” as well as elite athlete.
Twice a week he practices pentathlon — running, obstacle racing, swimming, shooting and fencing — and martial arts.
Juan Jose Guilarte, second right, is carried by his pentathlon trainer Albert Luis Campbell, right, as his grandmother Suleimi Licea Rodriguez, left, and his mother Sheila Guilarte adjust his prosthesis in Havana on April 16.
Photo: AFP
In his bedroom, a Spider-Man figurine occupies pride of place on his desk.
“I like him a lot because he is very fast and jumps a lot,” he said.
“He loves to dream, create and tell stories,” his mother, Sheila Guilarte, said, adding that his condition never gets him down because he brims with self-confidence.
While no hurdle seems too high for Juan Jose Guilarte to clear, his sporting ambitions have been thrown into flux by Cuba’s worst economic crisis in decades, aggravated by a US oil blockade.
Since January, the Havana native has been waiting for an operation to prevent his thigh bone, which is still growing, piercing the skin of his stump, which would cause him unbearable pain.
Since the age of two he has already undergone three such procedures, after which he is fitted with a new prosthesis, adapted to his height and weight.
However, a shortage of the anesthetics used to sedate patients during surgery combined with recurring power outages have led to his latest operation being indefinitely postponed.
Faced with crippling shortages of fuel and medication, hospitals have drastically reduced elective surgeries, with the Cuban Ministry of Public Health saying that 96,000 people, including 11,000 children, are on waiting lists for operations.
Before each sports session Juan Jose Guilarte clips on a lightweight carbon-fiber prosthetic limb designed for running.
Getting his thigh into his prosthesis is more and more of a squeeze.
“It really hurts,” he said, adding: “I want to be operated on now.”
His carbon-fiber leg was a gift from an American boy with the same disability, who traveled to Cuba in 2023 to give away one of his artificial limbs after himself being on the receiving end of a donated prosthesis a few years earlier.
Juan Jose Guilarte’s neighbors saw the offer advertised on social media and immediately notified his family.
A few days later, the two children met in Havana and Juan Jose Guilarte came away with a new spring in his step.
His prosthetist personalized the new appendage with a little Cuban flag — which one day Juan Jose Guilarte hopes to fly for his country.
“Since he was little he has said he’s going to the Paralympics to win a medal,” his mother said.
Juan Jose Guilarte made it clear which podium place he’s aiming for.
“I want to win gold,” he said.
