Last Saturday, Sergio Gutiérrez Perdomo passed away. We reissued the interview that appeared in Invasor five years ago. One should not talk about the sports movement in Ciego de Ávila without mentioning the name of whoever was the first sports director of the province.

I have spent hours trying to find the beginning of this interview, not because I want to pretend to be a good interviewer and write an impressive first paragraph, but because this man, at 90 years of age, has left me with the same optimistic feeling of four decades ago.

Right now, when we got to his home, he was reveling in the television of a baseball game. It seemed like his whole world was that little screen.

“It is that my life has been this and I would no longer know how to live if it was not to know of a new victory for Los Tigres, of the hockey victories, and of the many basketball crowns of Los Búfalos.

My family says that it is like a vice and, in truth, I am addicted to sports." It is not a "cliché" to write that if it were to relate the life related to the muscle activity of Sergio Gutiérrez Perdomo, it would take quite a few pages to fill out, since he was from the highest head of the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation in the municipality of Ciego de Ávila, between 1961 and 1967, to the deputy director of Sports in Camagüey. Then he became, in 1977, the first director of the Provincial Sports Sector in our nascent province. That is why this interview began backwards, when already sitting in the living room of his house, he was the one who asked me: "How many times have you and I talked about sports?"

I replied that this would not be the last and then he looked at me in such a way that I did not know how to read his expression and I only managed to break the ice with the question that I had placed at number one on my questionnaire.

—Which athlete from Ciego de Ávila caused you the most admiration in all those years?

—For me, Mercedes Pomares has been the greatest athlete that this province has produced. I do not detract from the four Olympic champions that we have, but the woman from Majagüa at the time was, if not the best, one of the most outstanding in Cuba and in the world. However, if you talk to me about admiration, I would prefer the weightlifter Pastor Rodríguez, not only for his athletic qualities, but also for his total dedication to the sport since I met him.

—Not a few athletes, coaches or executives today complain that they lack “this or that”. Did that happen in your time?

—The subject has already been suggested to me by some of the old companions when, from time to time, we meet, but each time has its detail. We did, in my opinion, what was appropriate at that time when there was almost nothing. There was no School of Sports Initiation School (EIDE) and very few coaches, to which was added, for example, in the case of baseball, that valuable ballplayers went to reside in the city of Camagüey, since there they had more possibilities in all the senses.

“In truth, we started from scratch and I think we planted the seed for what came next. I don't like to compare the work of those of now with those of us who were there before.

Each one does what his moment tells him. Of course, to answer you better, we could not ask for much because there was very little, although we lived in a romantic time in which just being able to organize a sports competition, we considered it a success.

—I remember that in his time it was already said, for example, that Ciego de Ávila was the Capital of Cuban Cycling...

—That was due, not only because we had several level riders, but also because in the First Tour of Cuba, Reynaldo Paseiro, then national commissioner of this discipline, praised us for the attention we received from all the members of the tour, to the extreme who decided that the rest day of the Vuelta would be here in the following editions.

—I see that you still have a privileged memory for your age. I challenge you to tell me about the first board of directors in the province.

—I will answer it without problems, let me tell you that what happened 30 or 40 years ago does not give me a job to remember, but some events that happened only months ago I forget. Old things! The head of Sports Activities was Ramón Pérez Morales, a man who also made sports history in the municipality of Morón. In addition, there were Roberto Jiménez, who attended Physical Education; Jesús Morales, in charge of Human Resources; Miguel Peña was the one for Disclosure and Propaganda; Arnaldo Moreno worked as an economics; Agustín Bravo, in the budgeted part; and Luis Acuña as secretary. I remember all of them with great affection.

—And if now, at the end of this interview, I invited you to speak to the boys who study and train at EIDE Marina Samuel... what would you say to them?

—The first thing I would express to you is that sport should not be taken as a way of life. It is a source of health and well-being for them and for those who will applaud them when they succeed. If they manage to internalize this, they may or may not be elite athletes, but in the end, they will feel more fulfilled. I would tell you something like that.